No matter how motivated you are when you start, you eventually run into a period when the will to keep grinding towards the goal fades away. It doesn’t mat...
No matter how motivated you are when you start, you eventually run into a period when the will to keep grinding towards the goal fades away.
It doesn’t matter whether the goal is to hit the gym consistently to get into shape or to get your business going, a time always comes when you’re exhausted, or can’t see any progress, or life sucker punches you in the face repeatedly and giving up is all-consumingly attractive.
How do you keep on going?
No matter how motivated you are when you start, you eventually run into a period when the will to keep grinding towards the goal fades away.
We’ve found that we have to start by going back to the beginning. Asking “Why am I going to the gym?” and “Why does it matter?” are good questions to help you recover the mindset you had at the beginning. It’s probably not enough to keep you going, but it’s a good start. We also recommend writing it down because that helps you grapple with the despair, frustration fatigue, disillusionment, or whatever it is that you’re facing.
The important thing is that you need to have a clear picture in your mind of what you’re trying to do and why it’s worthwhile. In other words, you need to scratch beneath the surface to find what underlies the goal.
For example, the goal might be to go to the gym four times a week so you can get stronger and have some sort of body transformation. But why? What’s the underlying motive?
We also think it’s a good idea to think about what giving up on the dream represents.
In a deep and real sense, giving up is roughly equated with death. It’s the death of the dream and the birth of a new burden of regret to carry when you get to the place where you can look back on the moment you gave up.
To be clear, there are times when it’s fully justified to let something go because your priorities have changed and you have something else you want to aim at. That’s a whole other thing. We’re talking about giving up because you cannot seem to find it in yourself to keep pressing on to that goal, because motivation has evaporated.
Sometimes, to find motivation and reach your goals, you have to grit your teeth, put your head down and push on through sheer bloody-mindedness because you refuse to give up. Is there a trick to doing this? We don’t know. All we know is that if you do keep putting one foot in front of the other, at some point you come out of the darkness to find that you’ve reached your goal or have made significant progress towards it.
And when you’ve done that, you get to have the satisfaction of being able to look back with pride (and not regret) at a moment when it was far easier and more attractive to quit, but you didn’t.
It’s monumentally important because refusing to give up when motivation has gone and things are against you (even if that is just a feeling) builds you up and represents you becoming more than what you once were. It means that rather than giving up and creating a point of regret in your life, and taking a step towards death, you embrace life and hope and keep the flame of hope and a better future burning.
This is important because doing something and pressing on towards a goal even when your entire being is instructing you to quit is a habit that you form through choosing to persevere over and over again.
Don’t quit. Don’t surrender.
Having said that, there are also some practical things you can do to help you keep going when you have no motivation left.
First, we’ve already mentioned reminding yourself of what you’re trying to achieve and why you’re doing it. Don’t underestimate how important this is.
Second, don’t focus on the entire thing you’re trying to do. Rather, focus on what you need to do in the next five minutes. Once you’ve done that, focus on the next small step, and so on. If you repeat that, you’ll be able to look back at a successful and productive stretch of hours and that makes a huge difference to your mood and motivation.
Third, talk to a close friend or family member. Ask them to help you persevere and to hold you accountable. You might even get some insights from them to help you cut something that has crept into your routine or add something in that you’ve forgotten. But above all, knowing that someone has your back and believes in you is incredibly stimulating and can help you find the will to continue.
Fourth, look back on past successes and times where you overcame a period of low motivation and succeeded. By doing this, you remind yourself that you’ve done it before, and if you’ve done it before, you can do it again. Negatively, you can remind yourself of the feeling and cost of giving up when you’ve done that in the past as well so that you can remember why you absolutely cannot give up.
Finally, remember that hardship is part of the journey. Try to appreciate where you are on the path to the goal. The journey may not actually be everything, but it is important and being present and reminding yourself to experience and appreciate the hardship, focussing on how you respond to it, can give you perspective.
Success does not come easily. It’s always hard slog at some point. It’s just that no-one sees the agony that you have to overcome before you reach success.
Choose to fight.
Keep running.
