How is this year going to be different for you?
8 Ways to Stay Motivated to Achieve your Goals
As a new year dawns and we gear up for a (hopefully) happy and productive 2019, what plans have you put in place to get there?
What are you going to do differently at work, to get the most out of your career and professional life, to be the happiest and most effective that you can be?
How was your personal life in 2018? Was it fulfilled and happy or fraught with difficulties and relationship challenges? And what are you going to do differently this year to make sure your home life works in 2019 and is a place of family happiness and health for you?
You may ask why am I talking about your personal life in a business column? It’s simple. You can’t separate you, a professional person – from you at home and in the village. We are all one person. If we are unhappy at home, it affects our working career. If work does not make you happy, it’s impossible for it not to affect you at home.
80% Happiness Across your Whole Life
To really prosper and thrive in all areas of your life, you have to be content across all. If you aren’t happy at work but you are at home, then you’re only 50% happy. If you struggle at home but work’s good, then you’re only 50% happy. Obviously, we can’t be happy all day every day, because life’s just not like that.
But a goal is to strive for 80% happiness across our life.
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Theodore Roosevelt
Happiness at Work
Work satisfaction means different things to different people, but common themes people tell me are:
- They enjoy their work
- They enjoy the people with whom they work
- They enjoy working for their leader
- They find the work stimulating and different
- They like that they don’t do a repetitive job
- They appreciate being told they are doing a good job
- They feel part of something bigger than themselves
People leave their direct Manager, not the Organisation
Research tells us over and over again that people don’t leave a Company if they like it. They walk out the door because of their Manager who does not support them, micro-manages, is rude to them and ‘makes their life hell’.
- Employees: It’s a new year and if you’ve been struggling with a less than great boss for a while, change jobs. Get out. It’s not worth being unhappy and struggling day in and day out and your health is more important than anything. Find a new boss who is more deserving of you
- Leaders: If you are the difficult boss, would you know it? Do you reflect enough to think about how you treat your staff and, most importantly, do something about it? Some may, most don’t. If your team is not performing well, and did not for most of last year, what goals do you have to change this? If you don’t have any, let’s create them now.
- Organisations: What new ways of working do you want within your ranks? How will you improve your culture and what plans and strategies can you implement to change the way things are now?
Why Goals are important in your life
There has been much research about goals, why they are important and how they impact our lives. According to the Peak Performance Centre, goals:
- Provide direction, giving us a way forward and a firm destination
- Gives us a clear focus on what’s important to us
- Provide us with clarity in the decisions we make
- Give us control over our future
- Provide us with motivation to achieve something important to us
- Give us personal satisfaction when we achieve the things we dream of doing
- Provide us with a sense of purpose in our life
The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal.
The tragedy lies in not making any goal to reach
Benjamin Mays
What about you? What goals do you want to achieve this year?
Personal Life – What is working well? Where is your greatest difficulty at home or in your personal life? How long has it been this way? What have you tried to change it? What has worked and what has not?
- What goals do you have to improve the situation?
- When and how will you do that?
Professional Life – What is working well? What is the one thing you would like to improve at work? Have you tried to resolve or improve it before and, if so, how?
- What goals do you have to improve the situation? Write them down.
- When and how will you do that?
Four parts of our lives where we need balance and happiness to live a great life
To live well we need to look after all aspects of our lives, of which there are four, according to author Steven Covey. Look at this table below and score yourself out of ten (highest) for each.
- Once completed, decide which are your two lowest scores?
- What action plans will you put in place to improve them in 2019?
Goals without firm action plans are just dreams
You can have all the thoughts and dreams you want in your business and in your career. You can talk about them to others and even describe what you are going to do in detail. The fact is that unless you ACT on the things you want in life, it’s just talk. Ideas. Thoughts. Nothing more.
An action plan means, having set a goal, you:
- Know what you want to achieve Be Specific
- How you will know you have done this Your goal is measurable
- Knowing it is possible It is something that can be achieved
- It is possible at this point in your life It is realistic
- It will occur within a time-frame Short, medium or long term time-frame
SMART Goals – The Formula
Note the goals above follow the SMART Formula – smart, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. Do more research on the internet about them.
8 ways to stay motivated and achieve your Goals
- Remember your bigger picture – The WHY behind your goal is critical. It is often the WHY that will drive you forward, even if you’re tired, because it is why you are trying to achieve your goal in the first place.
- Get organised – Clutter and disorganised effort will make you fail every time. Write your goals down, (follow SMART rules), stick to your deadlines and pat yourself on the back when you succeed.
- Break the big goal into smaller chunks – It often seems overwhelming and impossible when a goal is huge. It is easier to digest to attempt a goal little by little and achieve what you want to in small bits, over time.
- Stay well – If we are in a good shape physically and mentally it is so much easier to stay on top of life. To do well. Look after your health and, if that is one goal you have, make sure you pay attention to it. Without your health, you have nothing.
- If you let yourself down, get back on the horse and keep going – We all fail at times. If you mess up, ask yourself why and then learn from it. Get back on the path to achieve your goal.
- Put up a picture in the room of what you want to achieve – There is research to say that we are motivated by visual sensory information. For example, if you want a black Mazda car and saving for it is one of your goals, print a picture of the car and put it in your house and office (it’s called subliminal motivation).
- Think positively – Believe you can achieve what you want to. If you allow doubt and uncertainty to arrive, you will struggle to achieve your goal. Believe in you.
- Celebrate little achievements along the way. You deserve it!
Look forward to a prosperous year, wonderful career and great life
Life is what you make of it. When challenges arise, be creative in finding solutions. If one way doesn’t work, try another. There is no point in rolling over. Keep moving forward.
You have much to live for in your career, your business, your life. Make 2019 the best year ever.
Pure Magic International Business Solutions is an award-winning company, passionate about helping clients achieve strategic business outcomes through leadership, management and people development strategies and techniques at all levels by using a range of easy to implement HR and Organisational development strategies.
To find out more head to www.puremagicbusiness.com.au.
Free session with one of our experts: If you have any questions or would like a discussion about your Organisation, book a free session with us via our online calendar – https://my.timetrade.com/book/QGY21