Isn’t it funny how many people start their year with so many resolutions and goals in mind, and one month later, those resolutions simply go nowhere?
I was like that too. I remember planning to be the healthiest and fittest I could possibly be a few years ago. I imagined myself strong, fit, and healthy.
At some point, I even paid for a one-year gym membership because that would make me go no matter what, funny huh?
I can tell you, the only thing I lost that year was money.
Because I was making a commitment with the gym instead of making a commitment with myself, with my goals and with who I wanted to become in the process.
You see, when people are trying to achieve their goals, most of the times they look for instant results, they’re focusing on the short-term instead of the end goal. They rely on their “motivation” to help them follow through instead of developing habits that allow them to succeed in the pursuit of their goals.
Here are 5 things you can do to build the consistency required to follow through with your biggest goals:
Tap into your WHY
I know you have heard this one so many times, but I’ll say it again: You need to have strong motives to help you follow through. You need to understand why is so important for you to accomplish that specific goal. You can even picture yourself achieving it and bringing up all those feelings of accomplishment, happiness, success, etc.
It isn’t enough to know what you want, it’s also important to know the WHY because it gives you a sense of how you’ll feel if your goal is achieved. And that will make it so powerful that will push through over any barrier or encounter you might face along the way.
When you know why you’re working towards something, the how becomes much easier.
Schedule Your Tasks
You need to make sure you dedicate some time to work on your goal. So, let’s say you want to finally be able to exercise regularly. In this case, the idea is that you schedule some time during your day for your daily workout.
Now, there are a lot of resources that suggest that you should start small. I sort of agree and disagree with this and I tell you why.
If it’s the very first time you’re exercising, for example, you should start small in terms of the intensity (e.g. 15 minutes run), but not so much in terms of the frequency (e.g. number of days a week).
In other words, if you want to remain consistent at exercising, as an example, the idea is that you start as little as 15 minutes a day, but to make it a habit you need to do it as frequently as you can (e.g. 4 or 5 days a week). The more days you repeat the same activity at the same time, the easier it is for you to start getting used to it and soon you’ll find that exercise is part of your daily routine.
Implement Systems
Systems make your results predictable. In order for you to successfully accomplish your goal, you need to streamline the processes in your life. Systems are nothing more than a series of activities that work together to create a result. And when you have those processes in place that you follow every day, you can easily identify what it’s working and what’s not. Which means you can improve them to maximize your results.
Reward Yourself
This is so important for you to be able to acknowledge your progress. I mean, motivation doesn’t last for long, but if you reward yourself for your efforts, that might give you the motivation you’re looking for.
Identify key milestones when setting up your goal, and every time you get to each milestone, you reward yourself with something that you enjoy doing. So, when I was trying to lose weight, I was really disciplined with what I was eating during the week and on Saturday’s I rewarded myself with something I enjoy eating, like pizza.
You can get creative with your rewards, it needs to be something that really gets you excited, so do your best to achieve your next milestone in order to get your reward.
Have a Role Model
This one was a good one for me while trying to lose weight after having my second child.
Try to find someone who you can ask for advice. But most importantly, someone who makes you feel that reaching your goal is possible. Perhaps, the best role model should be someone who was where you are right now and it’s now where you want to be.
Why?
Because they surely experienced what you’re experiencing now and therefore, they are in a better position to give you the best advice.
So, this role model could be a good friend, a coach, someone you’ve been following for a while and is willing to provide their support.
And finally,
Be Kind to Yourself
Pursuing your biggest goals isn’t a simple task. You need to remember that it is a process and we all experience setbacks, which kind of help us come back stronger and even more determined.
So, if you miss a workout or you didn’t get to work on your business as planned, just remember that you can start again and keep working towards it.
Every day is a new opportunity to make things right!
What do you do to remain consistent while pursuing your biggest goals? Please share in the comments below.