It is so easy to stay motivated when you have people cheering you on, but what about those times in life when the crowd is silenced or not particularly concerned with what you feel is an important plight? This is the most pivotal point when it comes to accessing your goals. You have to know how to motivate yourself, or stir up your gifts. It’s not the job of the crowd to propel you towards your dreams, honestly most of your audience will not jump on the bandwagon until you’re almost about to cross the finish line. Which means it is very important that you believe in yourself and are able to motivate yourself from the beginning to the end.
Here are five things I’ve learned about staying motivated to achieve goals.
1. You must possess the double “P”s, passion and perseverance: You have to believe strongly in what you are doing, so much so that you feel the excitement moving through you every time you explain it to others. People should be able to see from your demeanor and hear in your tone that this is something that is near and dear to your heart. They may get tired of hearing about it, but you will never tire of telling about it.
Perseverance drives you when everything around you screams “NO”, or “You can’t do this”. Notice I said everything around you because for some people it isn’t about the “who” that doubts you but instead of the situations and circumstances that come against you. Perseverance is buckling down and not allowing anything to shift your focus from your goal. That includes your greatest critique, you.
2. Keep your eyes on the prize: You have to remain focused on your goal and your plan. I repeat you must stay focused on your goal and your plan. This means you have to create goals AND create a plan to help bring these goals to past. There is a quote by Larry Elder that says, “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. Your dream is too important not to break it down into goals and develop a plan to achieve it. Don’t wish your way towards delaying your dream. Focus in by creating your plan and a timetable to achieve it. As your focus becomes strengthens, you begin to see things more clearly. As this happens do not be afraid of having to make revisions to your plan, goal, or even the timetable.
3. Be flexible: Rigidness will not accomplish much. You have to be structured but you also have to be flexible. This is a very tricky balancing act, believe me I know! It is also a very important part of life. We have to understand when to loosen the restraints of structure and not be afraid to step outside of our comfort zone. Just do not confuse flexibility with slackness. Being flexible means you are working and foresee changes that will improve the outcome. Having to make changes because you place your plan on the backburner and are magically waiting for some advantage to come from it is slackness. Just thought I would point that out.
4. Be a team player: Wait a minute, wasn’t this post about motivating yourself? It sure is and being a team player is one of the ways to keep you stirred up. When I’m excited about what I’m doing and focused on my plan, I can’t keep it to myself. I step out and motivate you to greatness too! You see, you don’t have to be attempting to arrive at my goal to be on the path that I am following. It’s like jumping on and off the interstate. We get on for different reasons and get off at different exits, but there are certain straightaways that we share with people until we reach our destination. The same is true with life. We all want to travel the road of success and we all have different ramps we enter and exit on but our “straightaway” journey is harmonious. So as you are focusing in on what you want to accomplish look through your rearview, front, and side view mirrors and motivate others who are on the journey too. Getting you excited keeps me excited too!
5. Understand your purpose and know your worth: This point is a very important one and I ended with it instead of beginning with it on purpose. You may have an idea of what you want to be successful in, but you also need to understand why you want success in this area. If money is your only motivator you are not passionate about that goal. The things you are really passionate about have a purpose greater than money and even greater than you. Once you realize your purpose, why you are motivated to do what you want to do, it will ignite the flames when your greatest critique comes against you. We’re talking man v/s self, not the outside forces again. Your purpose ties all these other points together and allows your gifts to be stirred up when no one is around to fan the flames.
The last part of this is knowing your worth. Not just in how to market your skill and your time, but also in understanding that you are worthy of excellence and created to help bring excellence to others. Since you know that you are worthy, you want others to see their worthiness too. This means that you will spend the time needed to keep yourself stirred up because good enough is simply not.
If you stir yourself up you will be able to overcome the various obstacles that come across your path as you pursue your goals. Then the crowd that cheers you onto the finish line will learn what you already know, that they’re simply echoing the voices at the end that you’ve been amplifying in your head throughout the journey.
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