Rethinking Positive Thinking is all about how to stay motivated when you set a goal. Having a great appreciation for synchronistic events, no sooner did I complete my work on my post about the book Rethinking Positive Thinking did I receive a blog post submission from another of my young adult contributors about goals and staying motivated.
Read Jada’s post, then note the additional step I would suggest given the work in Rethinking Positive Thinking on mental contrasting.
Staying Motivated by Jada Yarbough
How can I stay motivated to make this year a more successful one? A close friend and I have been discussing the many things we wish to improve this year. Each year we set new goals for ourselves in order to improve in the various realms of our lives; physically, mentally, academically, socially etc.
Though we make these goals with great intentions to achieve them, we often become unmotivated as time moves forward. The issue we faced in the past was the fact that our goals were sometimes forgotten after the first couple of weeks, often because we did not feel we were making any progress.
This year we decided to create a rewards system for ourselves in order to keep us motivated. We evaluated what improvements we really wished to make and set short term goals for each. For example because I wish to increase my daily water intake, I have given myself the goal to drink 8 glasses of water a day for a month. If I achieve this goal then I will reward myself with a new article of clothing. My friend, who wishes to stop biting her nails, has promised herself if she can resist biting her nails for a month she can treat herself to a manicure. Having a reward to look forward to keeps us motivated to stick with our goal and setting short time frames for these goals allows us to feel accomplishment which in turn motivates us to keep going.
Dr. Success Challenge: Now that you have your goals, you have set your rewards, think about what may get in the way of you achieving your goal on any given day. Example: Drinking water on a cold day may be more difficult. How can you plan for cold days? If you buy bottle water, the cost may become an obstacle some days. How can you get your water and not bust your budget?
