One Snarky Chica with Issues

Each Friday is dedicated to personal development issues. 

Sometimes the only thing standing between you and a goal is motivation. If you’re like me, then you set out to accomplish something and in the beginning you are pumped and motivation is at an all-time high. But before you know it, something has taken the wind out of your sails and you’re having difficulty completing a task and seeing things through to reach the goal. Losing motivation sucks, but there are some things that you can do about it.

The key to achieving goals and being able to cross things off of lists is staying motivated. I have a lot of lofty goals and dreams, which require some major motivation, and it needs to be constant motivation. Here are some motivation hacks that work for me, and feel free to take them and tweak them to work for you.

#1 – Keep your goals visible. This is the most important and effective thing for me in terms of keeping motivated. In my life, I’m trying to pay down some debt, reduce the amount of money I spend dining out and live in France at some point in my life. On the wall by my desk are photos of France, to keep me working towards that dream. I have notes around my apartment reminding me about bad food experiences at restaurants to keep me from dining out.

#2 – Keep track of your progress. For my goal of paying down debt, I keep running monthly totals that I update regularly. This helps me to see where I started, where I’m at now and how far I have to go!

#3 – Schedule rewards for goal completion. Sometime not too long ago I discovered a sunset cam for Santorini, and I’ve been obsessed with the place ever since. I *really* want to go there, but the cost is really too great considering my current debt load. So, the only thing standing between me and Santorini is the debt, which is a heckuva motivator. (I’ve been living in the South, can ya tell?) The solution here is simple – to motivate me to payoff my debt I have told myself (and my significant other) that there will be no trips to Santorini until the debt is gone.

#4 – Find others to motivate you. A great way to keep you motivated is to find someone else to help. It can simply be friends and family or you can find an online group of like-minded individuals that share your goals. The Expats in Italy message board is a great example of this. A lot of the people on there are already living in Italy and there are a lot that dream of living in Italy. Together they all motivate each other.

#5 – Turn big goals into multiple small goals. Sometimes we have goals that are massive, which means we think we’re never going to make it and there goes the motivation. By breaking up a large goal into smaller goals, we end up with more victories, which means better motivation. For instance, I want to live in France, which is something that will take a while to accomplish. So, I’ve broken up that goal. First I need to be debt free. Then I need to learn my French better. Then I need to visit all the regions for extended periods of time (to see where I like it best). Then I need to save up some money. Then I can see about the actual moving part. And for being debt free, that is broken down by individual debts. For example, pay off card #1, pay off card #2, pay off student loan, pay off car loan #1 and so on.

#6 – Make a conscious effort to think about your goal at least once a day. In the mornings when I’m having my coffee and at night once I get in bed, but before I fall asleep, I like to think about what life will be like as I accomplish my goals. Some days I think about it more than that! Visualizing the success is really an effective way to motivate yourself. When I watch the sunset in Santorini on the sunset cam, I think about how I’ll be seeing it in person soon.

#7 – Surround yourself with positivity. Once I was reading a book about auras and how some people are ‘aura leeches’ and when they are around they tend to have a negative aura and really cloud your aura. I’m not really a new age person, but the concept of the ‘aura leech’ really stuck with me, because people like that do exist. When you are trying to stay motivated it is important to not have people in your life that are bringing you down with them. You don’t have to call them ‘aura leeches’ but you need to get them out of your life. Once you have only positive people in your life, you will notice that it is much easier to stay motivated.

#8 – Don’t be secretive about your goals. We humans are funny creatures because we are much more likely to see something through to completion if we have to be accountable for our actions. I’ve been wanting to live in France for many years, but never told anyone. Instead, I quietly told myself that I’d get there. Meanwhile, I continued to charge up my credit cards, thus making it even harder for me to get to France. However, I told a friend that I wanted to live in France a few months ago, and now she’s excited for me, which means that I need to work towards it just so I don’t look like big talker. It might be silly, but it’s true.

#9 – Give yourself a break. Sometimes it helps to take a little bit of a breather because nothing stifles motivation like a bit of burnout. Just remember not to give yourself too much of a motivation vacation!

#10 – Set realistic goals. It is important that you set goals that you can reasonably reach; otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure, which leads to a motivation loss. For instance, I hate science and did horribly in it, so I’m not setting any goals of becoming a medical professional.

Those are some of the things that I do to stay motivated. By putting a posting schedule on this page, I have motivated myself (via #8) to post on here regularly. One look at the archives will show that my motivation was a bit lacking before that.

Do you have some motivation tips? Leave me a comment and let me know what you do to stay motivated!