Motivational Monday

If you’re having trouble keeping your goals this year, how about anchoring parts of the goals to things you already do. This may just help you keep going.

Treat each Monday this month as if it was New Year’s day. Review and rewrite your goals each Monday morning. Say them out loud as well, to make them feel more real. The more senses are used to review a goal, the more engaged one is with said goals.

Then, place a few reminders about your day at key places. Some place it on the door handles around the house, others on their desktop or screen-saver, others on their phone’s as alerts. Whatever the case, have fresh reminders around the day. Why fresh? The mind gets used to seeing something and “turns a blind eye” to it. As in, you don’t notice it anymore. Habituation. But by changing the reminder periodically, it will always appear fresh and catch the eye.

Example.. If you’re using a sticky note to remind you to stand up straight, change the color of the note every few days, change the way you phrase the reminder, change the location of the note as well. That way, the note keeps standing out and you keep on with your efforts to stand straight.

It takes a bit of time for a habit to become automatic. Between two and three months. Help yourself by anchoring reminders and motivating links to existing habits… that way, it’s easier to stay the course until the habit comes real.

In this blogger’s case, lunch was the anchor appointment for my writing. There was no other time that was strongly rooted in fixed habit during the day. Every day, I have lunch at the same time. At first, it was just rush to eat. Then, one year, I added meditation to the hour of lunch. This helped quiet my mind long enough to figure how to reconnect with my creative side. Then, the following year, it was the habit of researching how to blog. The following year, actually writing for a yet created blog. Now, it’s pushing the limits of my writing abilities while adding other creative outlets.

Yes, it sounds crazy. That’s how it sounded last year when I had the goal of writing over 300k words. Then, by sticking to it every lunch break I could, I got to 478k words by the close of last year. Keep in mind, three years ago, I had no idea how many words I could ever write. Two years ago I just wanted to get to 200k words period.

What are your goals for this year? What are you going to do today to set up your winning streak? What apps can help you keep motivated? What blog posts do you need to read to stay motivated? What anchor appointment will you use?

Any major plan broken down into steps and executed daily will eventually be done victoriously. Take a few minutes to plan your success today! Have a great and awesome day to set up a fabulous week… on purpose!