Motivation To Reach New Goals

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It’s hard to stay motivated (long-term), especially now when our lives and sense of “normalcy” has completely changed.

Below are 2 strategies that I find to be very helpful ways to stay motivated and follow through on your most challenging tasks.

1.  Artificial Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a principle of human behavior that says that a behavior is more likely to happen & will continue to happen, when it’s followed by something enjoyable or rewarding.

For example: 

Suppose you want to stick to a goal of running two times a week for one month.  Each time you accomplish your run, give yourself a small reward-like 15 minutes of reading time, a piece of dark chocolate, or your favorite smoothie or juice from a local juice bar.  Each time you complete your run, reward yourself in a small & healthy way.
At the end of the month-think of a larger reward to give yourself for reaching the goal of completing the entire month, like a new outfit for the summer or a pedicure.  (Ok, for now that pedicure might have to be done on your own, but you could include a bath & make it extra relaxing!)

I know we usually think of this reward system as something for kids, but you know it works for them-so try it for yourself and see what happens!

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2.  The Ulysses Pact 

This pact is named after the hero of the Trojan war & is a technique for holding yourself accountable to stick with a goal, even when it is hard.

The key in this pact is that we make a choice in the present that binds us to perform an action in the future.

For example:

Suppose you want to stick to a plan of making a healthy dinner for your family 5 nights a week.  Or, you make a decision to workout with a buddy 3 times each week.  You could write your good friend or even your child a series of checks for $20 each and instruct them to cash one of these checks and use the money however they want, if you skip out on meeting for a workout or don’t meet your 5th dinner for your family for that week.

The Ulysses Pact helps you maintain a high level of motivation when things get tough by locking in a future behavior ahead of time.

I personally thought that these techniques are good ones for setting new goals and sticking to them.  Hope you give them a try and strive for something bigger and better in the future!

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