Many of us would like to save money, cut expenses, increase our income, change our eating habits, exercise more, and lose weight. We are intelligent enough to research and for the most part learn the steps to take to achieve results. We learn to break our goals down into smaller do-able steps. We start our journeys with the first single step. We take the second and third steps. Maybe we continue on this path for some time before we start to lose our motivation and ability to prioritize this goal any longer. Life happens and gets in the way. Obstacles come up which we seem not to be able to overcome just then. This is to be expected. But when do we get back on our path? Sometimes we find it difficult to do that. We lose motivation, lose hope we can follow that path and achieve our desired results, lose sight of why it was important to us in the first place. Perhaps we never really took the time to think about that.
Finding our why, the reasons why a goal is important to us to achieve or the reasons why a step is important to us to take, is the key to motivating ourselves. It has to come from within. It has to truly matter to us.
But how do you find your why if you aren’t really sure? In this case meditation can help or even simply going for a quiet walk in nature. Find stillness and a sense of calm. Make a list of the reasons why you think the goal is important to you and or what you hope to achieve. Review the list and choose the top reasons that resonate the most with you. This may seem basic but it is important not to skip over this step.
It helps to write your top reasons down and keep them somewhere where you can see it and remind yourself on a daily basis. A note taped to your bathroom mirror, a note on the fridge, or a post it note stuck on your computer monitor. Even a little note taped to the front of your credit card and or tucked into your wallet can be a helpful reminder of what your motivation is, if for example you are trying to be more frugal and spend less.
When challenges occur, obstacles come up and life happening seemingly is getting in the way of our goals and steps that we had wanted to take, remembering the reasons why we wanted to achieve that goal or take that journey is the way we will find it within us to overcome the obstacles and to move forward on our path. Even if it is delayed and put on hold for a time, or even if the steps forward are very small we will be able to move ahead. Finding our why, knowing our deep reasons for wanting to take action and understanding what the reason for the sense of purpose is that resonates deeply within us, is the way we will find the motivation to move forward again.