Are you constantly telling yourself that if things were a little different, you could do great things? Meanwhile, are other people forever telling you how much potential you harness?
If you ever find yourself daydreaming about a different career, living in a different city or travelling more, it’s time to get your motivation up off the ground and get going. We’ve all found ourselves longing for more at times, whether it’s relating to work or our personal lives. Sometimes these daydreams can seem just like that, a dream you have to pass the day; something very unachievable and completely unrealistic. But did you know there’s a secret tip to actually getting things you want? It’s simple: just do it.
Before you roll your eyes and think “what a load of tosh”, the inspirational phrase (coined by Nike) is actually a pretty powerful statement that can help you achieve your ultimate goals. Simply starting somewhere, regardless of how small the step is, can set you on the right path and have the positive impact you’re searching for.
Simple tasks, simple measures
Have you ever put off a simple task for no reason at all? Perhaps you’ve received an email and thought “I’ll deal with that later”. One way to kick off your new found motivation is to just do it. If you have a task that will take you under 5 minutes to complete, there is very little reason to put it off. Doing this will boost your motivation as you’ll find yourself getting things done faster. You’ll also get the results you need much faster too, allowing you to finish up a project in a much timelier manner.
Forget saying “I’ll start tomorrow”
‘Starting tomorrow’ can lead you to forever. Tomorrow you might find yourself with new responsibilities or tasks that can put you off yesterday’s goal. You’re going to have hundreds of ‘tomorrows’ that never truly come, and you’ve only got one ‘now’. The ‘now’ is where you’re going to make the big changes that will affect your longterm goals.
Define your stepping stones
If you’ve got a longterm goal that seems miles off from you every achieving, chances are you’re going to put it off because you’re not even sure where to start. An easy way to make a large goal realistic is to set out stepping stones that can help you reach that point. Now these stepping stones could go on for months, years or even decades – but at least you’ll know which stone to hop onto next.
Care about it
If you’re stuck in a dead-end job or have lost real motivation, it’s likely that the motivation you have to reach your goals has gone down the drain too. The trick to reaching your goals is to actually give a damn about the work you’re doing. How is it helping you reach where you want to be? You should always reminds yourself why you do what you do. It’s a two way street; how is your current role helping you reach your goals? And how, in turn, are you helping your current company realise its desired destination? It’s important to hold onto the real reasons why you do what you do, and use these as rocket fuel to get you where you need to be.
Embrace your inner adrenaline junkie
Procrastination is easy. When you procrastinate, you do things you know how to do and avoid those that time and effort to figure out. You don’t challenge yourself or learn new things. Procrastination is like your great aunt at a party; familiar, friendly and probably good at giving hugs, but when it comes down to it you don’t want to spend to much time with her. So let go of procrastination and jump out of your comfort zone, do some things that challenge you and you’ll be more likely to achieve something new.
I could end this article with a typical “go get ’em, son” type paragraph. However, achieving your goals is a personal thing, which everyone tackles differently. If you’ve ever had experience of shaking yourself out of a rut by ‘just doing it’, we would love to know. Leave your stories in the comments below!
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