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Happy New Year! I know I’m not alone when I say that New Year’s Day is my favorite day of the year. It’s a moment in time where we reflect on the blessings of the past and look to the future with newfound hope, ambition and excitement. When the parties are over, the hats come off and the champagne runs dry, we are left with the only thing that really matters to make the new year successful, ourselves. Whether you prefer to makes resolutions, set goals, create a vision board or nothing at all, the new year is the perfect time for personal growth. To help keep you motivated to achieve your goals, I’ve created a list of tips that I’ve found very useful over the years. They can be applied to fitness goals, career goals or any other area of self-improvement. Whatever you want to manifest for yourself in 2018, you can achieve it as long as you remain focused and motivated!
Persistence kills resistance and consistency is key. Yes, I combined two cliches as my first tip but let me explain. Before I took this on as a personal mantra I would struggle to make it to the gym regularly. Some weeks I would go everyday, other weeks I wouldn’t go at all. The pendulum swing of feeling successful and then feeling like a total failure was not healthy or sustainable. Until I understood the importance of steady consistency, I never met my fitness goals. Now, I approach the gym completely different and my body and mind have reaped the benefits. Every week, I use my planner to mark the days I want to go the gym and what workout I will do. I plan my gym trips around all of my other obligations so it becomes part of the routine. This is helpful for a number of reasons, first, it gives me a plan to succeed, second, I’m able to hold myself accountable and third, it allows me to see the bigger picture. Instead of looking at the days as a win or loss, I look at the week as a whole. If I skip the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, instead of losing motivation and feeling bad I simply make it up the last four days of the week. I never adopt a “I’ll just start over Monday” attitude because I value the equilibrium of consistency. This brings me to my next tip…
Never miss a Monday. I don’t remember where I first heard this expression but it stuck with me and has kept me motivated when I didn’t think I had anything left in the tank. It’s another mantra that once I adopted as a way of life, it changed the way I faced challenges. Mondays are generally dreaded by everyone but what if there was a way to ensure you had a great start to the week every week? There is, never miss a Monday. This is helpful for a number of reasons, first, it ensures that you commit to your goals at least one day of the week, second, it ensures that you start the week with a win which means you’ll most likely continue to stay motivated. If you never miss a Monday, your motivation will steadily increase over time and that feeling of success will turn Monday into one of your favorite days of the week!
Make small changes one at a time. This may seem obvious, but sometimes we set our expectations so high that we set ourselves up for failure. If you decide to take on a new “diet” while training for a marathon and taking on new responsibilities at work all at once, you probably will lose motivation for not just one of your goals, but all of them. This has helped me tremendously in my health and wellness, but also financially and in my career. When we take on smaller achievable goals and build upon them over time, the long-term outcome is far greater. You will feed off the wins and continue to make gains. We live in a world of instant gratification but our habits, personalities, values and circumstances were not created in a single moment. Change and growth will not happen over night, it takes time. Small consistent changes will keep you motivated and on track.
If you start to feel lost or like you’ve hit a plateau, it’s OK. We have an entire year ahead of us to begin and begin again, and begin again if necessary. Starting the year with a grateful heart and a clear intention of who you want to be, what you want to give back and how you can grow is only the starting line. I hope you found this article helpful and if you have tips to stay motivated that have worked for you, please share them below in the comments so that we can better ourselves as a community!
XOXO Erin
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