7 Tips to Stay Motivated on Your Journey to your Goals

I was listening to a discussion on motivation today and I thought I might share some tips with you because achieving financial goals requires a lot of motivation and we don’t always have it.

1. Set specific goals: I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because if we don’t know where we’re going it doesn’t matter in which direction we head. I also create vision boards to give myself inspiration to achieve the goals I have. I have a physical one that I keep in my room and I have a digital one that I have set as my desktop wallpaper on my computer.
2. Accountability: In order to keep yourself accountable, sometimes it helps to have a buddy who will ask you periodically how you’re doing on your goals and who you can you can do the same for. Even just a few check-ins will ensure that you both feel the pressure to make progress towards your goal.
3. Track your progress: By tracking your progress you can see that you’re actually moving toward your goal and that will drive you to keep going! I started tracking my investments on a monthly basis last year and you have no idea how much that pushes me to keep going.
4. Use positive self-talk: Talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend! You wouldn’t call your best friend names and make them feel bad about their ambitions, right? If you would, you should really examine why you are behaving that way because tearing someone down won’t build you up. If negative self-talk is an issue for you, make sure you slow yourself down each time you think something negative and re-frame it into something positive or hopeful.
5. Reward yourself: Treat yourself to something proportional to the goal you just achieved. I tend to do mainly non-monetary rewards. For example, I don’t usually watch t.v. without doing something else at the same time, so one of my go to rewards is to let myself watch an episode of a show I like or even a movie without doing anything else!
6. Surround yourself with people who also have goals: They don’t have to have the exact same goals as you, but if your goals are even in the same area you’re going to have a lot more in common and ways to encourage each other. You’ll also be able to give each other tips and tricks to get there.
7. Gamification: This one helps me for daily things that I don’t want to do. Making things a game or even just setting a timer to make myself race to finish the task I don’t want to do, make me a lot more inclined to get it done, and fast! I mainly do this for cleaning and tasks of the sort, but I also use it for when I need to finish certain work assignments that I’m dreading. After a quick first draft that I raced to finish, I can go back later to edit and expand on it.

Hopefully these tips will help you keep yourself going when motivation starts to wane. Remember that you don’t always have to be motivated, you just have to keep going regardless of the way you feel. Feelings ebb and flow, but as long as you keep taking steps toward your goals, you’ll achieve them eventually!