How to Get Motivated to Achieve Your Goals

We all are good at rationalizing or making excuses. Being too busy has been a big excuse for me. With two kids and my own business, squeezing one more thing into my schedule is next to impossible. And yet,....there is time to play an occasional game of Scrabble on the computer. The time is there, if I just commit to it.

Illness or injury are old standbys for the exercise averse, such as myself. I feel a cold coming on. Better rest. My knees are acting up, wouldn't want to make them worse. Starting a diet has it's own set of obstacles. I don't have the energy right now to focus on that. I am under too much stress. The holidays are coming up. And what about smoking? Stress again. Previous attempts that failed. Fear of gaining weight. We all have excuses that we build up to create a zone of comfort around our bad habits.

Finally, it comes down to recognizing that no one, not even me, was being fooled by all the excuses. If I wanted to succeed, then it was up to me to change my behavior.

Making it easy for yourself to succeed is important. If there are too many constraints or obstacles to achieving your goal, it is far less likely to happen. It may mean that you have to change your rountine, or even your lunch mates. It doesn't mean that you can't socialize with them, but if they are encouraging you to smoke, or overeat, then it might be in your best interest to go for a walk at lunch instead.

If you want to work out, find a gym that is not out of the way. Maybe it is in your own house. An exercise bike. A DVD. If you go to a gym, make sure the hours, or time of day that you plan to go, is convenient.

Start with small goals. Don't expect to go from zero to sixty in a day. Start just writing down everything you eat, or each time you smoke a cigarette to increase your awareness of your current patterns. Or, if you are looking for a new job, start by keeping a journal. Describe your perfect job in detail. Where? What would a day be like? What are the people like? Start talking to friends about the kind of job you are looking for.

I began working out this summer in the mornings after I dropped my daughter off at camp. It was on the way home, and I was out anyway. It worked. A new habit was beginning to be formed. The gym had a pool, exercise equipment I enjoyed using, and had enough equipment so that there was seldom a wait.

I have found working out in the morning gives me the best chance of success. If I don't work out in the morning, I will find lots of reasons to continue to put it off for "later". Problem is, later never happens. If I work out in the morning, I start the day with a revved up metabolism, and no guilt. Figure out what works best for you and your routine. Maybe it is first thing in the morning, at lunch time, or after work on the way home.

The key to any change is to make it doable. You don't want to be so overwhelmed that you give up before you even begin. Those days that you are planning your strategy towards your goal are the initial movement towards our ultimate success. We may not see them that way, but they are creating the shift in our brain to start behaving differently.

Want to wake up tomorrow a new you? A non-smoking, trim, fit, organized, and healthy you? Of course you do. We all do. Be we also know that it doesn't happen that way.

One of the biggest challenges that people create for themselves is to try and do too many changes at once. Part of the problem is that we get that very advice from people all the time. If you want to lose weight, you have to exercise and change your diet. Quit smoking....try all three. Right. Why don't I take up juggling too? Few people succeed because most people set their goals too high, and too fast to be able to realistically succeed.

In 2008, I began to try and work out. I decided I would begin with exercise. If it boosted my metabolism so I lost a few pounds, great! Turns out I actually gained weight. About ten to fifteen pounds. Awful, isn't it? But I refused to let myself get upset about this. I would gently remind myself that my goal is to get to the gym at least five days a week. And by the end of the year, that is what was happening. For forty-five minutes to an hour, I worked out at the gym. I had more energy. I felt stronger. And I felt more toned. I was wearing the same size, but I knew I had achieved a more important goal. By the end of the year, I had built the habit of exercise. I knew I could sustain it.

As I begin 2009, I am ready to address eating. I am not counting calories. I am listening to my body. I will not eat unless and until I am hungry. I will not eat after 8 p.m. in the evening. That is it. Already, I have dropped a few pounds. My short term goal is to lose 20 pounds by my birthday in the beginning of June. That means an average of one pound per week. I already feel like I know I can succeed. I will post my progress here for you to follow, so you can see if my new strategy is working. The picture....me in my studio working. This is the beginning of this new journey.

This has been the magic bullet for me. I had heard about a Yale University professor. Dean Karlan, who decided, while in grad school that he needed to drop some weight. He joined forces with another student, Ian Ayles, and they wrote up a contract. They each agreed to pay the other half their annual salary if they did not meet the goal by the deadline. The possibility of losing a large sum of money was the key to their motivation to stick to their diets.

In my own life, the start of the school year caused too many changes in my rountine, and I was finding it harder and harder to get to the gym. I needed something extra to give myself the needed kick in the butt. The contract came to mind. I adapted Karlan and Ayles idea for myself. I paid my kids $5.00 each time I don't work out.
When I consider whether or not I want to have to pay my kids, or go to the gym, I find that extra little internal push. Once I am there, getting a good workout is not a problem. The biggest challenge is simply showing up. I ended 2008 successfully accomplishing my goal. And the contract was a big help to me in staying on track.

You can create a contract of the do it yourself variety, such as my own. Or you can go to Stickk.com and set up a contract with the originators of the concept. It won't cost you anything...unless you break the contract, of course. Then, it will cost what you decide. You set up your goal, the amount you will pay if you don't succeed, and who it goes to. It can go to a person, or a charity, or even an anti-charity (someone you would HATE to see get your money!). And you set the deadline. When do you want to accomplish your goal?

I struggled at times, but I achieved my goal in 2008 of getting to the gym at least five days a week by the end of the year. I knew it would take time to build a new habit, and it did. But it is a habit that is sustainable now.

I did not lose any weight in the process though. I comforted myself with the thought that muscle is heavier than fat! But I also knew that I had to finish one goal before I could focus my attention on another. Now I am ready to take on eating.

My goal is to focus on when I am hungry and when I am full. It is easy to eat for all sorts of reasons other than hunger. Stress, seeing yummy food, boredom, it is time to eat....there are as many reasons as there are overweight people. I knew i was not eating just because I was hungry, and I sometimes ate the food that was in front of me, even after I was full. it is time to shift that behavior.

I actually got a kick start on my weight loss with the flu at the end of the year. Eight pounds gone along with my energy and appetite.. But as I began to feel better, I knew it was time to make sure I adjusted to a healthier eating pattern. So far, I have lost another three pounds. I am not eating to the point of feeling stuffed. I am waiting till I have a clear signal of hunger before I eat. I am being as conscious as possible of every bite I eat. And so far it is working well. Plus I am back to the gym!

My goal to lose twenty pounds (on top of the flu loss!) by my birthday at the beginning of June. I will keep you updated.

It is going better than I could have ever believed. I was somewhat skeptical of this approach. But, so many other ways had not worked. I was willing to give it a try.

I have only had to put another $5 into the kids' kitty. In spite of the knee problems, a show, and a sick kid in the last month, I am still getting myself to the gym. I am now working out for 45 minutes to an hour each time. I feel stronger than I have in years. I love it!

As I get to the end of the year, I am beginning to plan my next goal...weight loss. My birthday is in early June. Twenty pounds by my birthday, or, $1000 to...? Any suggestions? I will think about it, and in the meantime, let me know if you have any suggestions where that money should go.

Life can present plenty of challenges. In addition to the day-to-day time crunch, a few weeks ago, I injured my knee. I missed almost a full week of workouts. The first few days were needed rest, the last two were fear....did I injure my knee badly? I have already had surgery on this knee and several injuries over the years. So, when it starts to scream, I start to worry.

But, my trainer came to my rescue. She devised a whole new set of workouts for me that will avoid further injury to the knee, while being able to continue my workouts. Yay!!

I am consistently making it to the gym again. The kids have only $25 in their kitty. And I am getting stronger and fitter. My car goes right past my street after dropping my daughter off at carpool, and heads for the gym, without any hesitation. Exercise really can be habit forming! And I am working out for at least 45 minutes each visit now, compared to 25 to 30 minutes when I began.

It has been about four weeks, and I have to say this plan seems to be working well. So far, the dollar tally has me with $75 and my daughters with $15. There were a few days that I felt like I would rather pay them the money than drag myself to the gym. But more often than not, I am finding the thought of having to pay them money for my laziness is not worth it.

I am down by a size. My workouts are generally 45 minutes now, instead of the 30 minutes when I started. I can see improvements in my stamina, strength and balance.

Two months to go, but things are definitely getting better.