Sticking to your Goals

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“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” ~ Frank Lloyd Wright.

Why is it that human beings find working so difficult? Working at any goal, even the goals we set for ourselves and say that we want more than anything in the world, feels difficult. Why is it so challenging to be persistent? Why are we so much quicker to give in and give up than to keep plodding through? Perhaps because we are programmed that way? Perhaps we are socialized as children to try so hard and no harder. Perhaps somewhere along the way we learn that it is acceptable to give up when we face an obstacle. The problem with this is that we end up never getting to the place we want to be, never reaching our goals. And if that is really truly our goal, and our main desire in life, then we need to find the strength within ourselves to stick with it.

When to change your goals

Sometimes of course, we may review the situation and realize that it has changed from when we originally made the goal and that we now have a new goal. Sometimes we review the situation and the circumstances and make a rational logical decision that it is time to pursue a new goal. This is never easy but sometimes it is necessary. However we must ensure that we are not justifying giving up. We must ensure that we are not just looking for a reason to give up on our goal, to take the easy way out. This can be tricky - because we are often inclined to trick ourselves. One sure way to test this is to see what new goal is replacing the old goal. If the new goal seems suspect, temporary or not in keeping with your life view then its time to rethink your decision. You are looking for the easy way out.

Maintaining persistence

So you have evaluated your situation, your circumstances and your goal and reaffirmed that, yes indeed, this is the goal you want and need to follow through on. How do you maintain your persistence? Well in addition to changing your environment as describing in the article: Achieving Your Goals Part V - Change Your Environment, you have to keep making the decision over and over and over again. And just do it.Just do it.

Just get started. Just work on it in spite of your emotional state. This is the way of building discipline, doing what you need to do even when you do not feel like doing it. You will find that once you start doing it, you will get absorbed by it and just continue.

The 10 minute rule

This references the 10 minute rule written about in the article Achieving Your Goals Part IV - Staying Motivated. This basically states that once you commit to doing any task for at least 10 minutes you will find yourself engrossed enough to continue doing it. So if what you are dreading is spending an hour studying, just sit down and open the book and start reading. Promise yourself that you will do it for at least 10 minutes. You will find that since you have already started you wont feel like stopping. Maybe you don’t feel like doing your exercise today – convince yourself to do just 10 minutes worth. Make a deal with yourself that if you feel like stopping after 10 minutes you will. After all, what’s 10 minutes of your day? You spend more time in line at the grocery store. Just try it. You will most likely find that after the 10 minutes you will feel like completing your exercise routine.

Talk yourself into sticking with your goal

Other ways to encourage yourself to be persistent is to remind yourself of your long term goal and how accomplished you will feel once you have achieved it. Remind yourself of how accomplished you will feel once you do what it is you are dreading doing right now. Remind yourself of other successful people who have worked hard and achieved success, whether it is your favourite basketball, soccer, football, golf or other sporting star. Or perhaps some other celebrity such as Oprah or Donald Trump. Or perhaps someone that you know personally whom you admire. Remember that none of them woke up successful one day. Remind yourself that they worked every day towards their goals until they acquired the success they set out to.

Remind yourself that success comes through working each and every day towards your goals. This little exercise routine and that little bit of studying is what will culminate in that fit healthy 10lbs-lighter body and that Bachelors Degree. Remind yourself that you are tough and that you are willing to sacrifice for your goals – in this case, that sacrifice is giving up being slothful and lazy or giving up going to a party or vegging out in front of the TV. Remind yourself that the road to success is narrow and if you give up on your task today (like everyone else does) you will not succeed in the long term and success is your final destination.

It is a struggle because you have to go against your emotional state and do what you do not feellike doing. You have to argue with yourself and convince yourself to do this thing that you do not wish to do right now. That is what makes it hard and challenging. The upside is that as you continue to practice this process it becomes easier, you become familiar and less uncomfortable with doing what you need to do to fulfill your goal rather than what you feel to do at this very moment. You learn the art of giving up short-term pleasure for long-term success. You learn that happiness is not pleasure, happiness is victory. Victory over your own internal inertia. Victory over your laziness. Victory over your emotions. Victory over yourself.

“Most of us serve our ideals by fits and starts. The person who makes a success of living is one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That’s dedication.” ~ Cecil B. DeMille.

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Related Articles:

• Achieving Your Goals - The Power of Persistence
• Achieving Your Goals - The Power of Consistency
• How to become an Optimist - Part I
• Relationship Dynamics - How to get the relationship you want
• How to Fight Depression Naturally
• How to Stop Worrying and Be Relaxed – An Experiment
• How to be Happy - Training yourself to enjoy life
• How to choose your perfect mate, spouse or life partner
• Coping with Stress - Part I
• How to Quit Smoking Naturally - Part I
• Achieving Your Goals Part I - Goal Identification
• Achieving Your Goals Part II - Form a Plan
• Achieving Your Goals Part III - Make a Commitment
• Achieving Your Goals Part IV - Staying Motivated
• Achieving Your Goals Part V - Change Your Environment
• Achieving Your Goals Part VI - Change Your Thinking
• Achieving Your Goals Part VII - Discipline and Vocabulary

Posted in A New Start, Choices, Goals, Motivation |

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 7:22 am and is filed under A New Start, Choices, Goals, Motivation . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.