Rekindling Motivation After a Setback
Imagine you are completing each week having filled your planner pages, feeling on top of the priorities in your life. You are turning off the alarm before it goes off, you are checking all the boxes. And suddenly life gets crazy. Your routine grinds to a halt. A heavy work load hits. Daily stress builds. Seasonal sickness hits the family and everyone hits a wall. Things feel out of control. Have you been there? Sometimes it can feel like an insurmountable feat to get back on track. Slowly everything you’ve been busy building feels like it’s unraveling. Today we’re chatting about how you can keep motivation alive and going even through the busy times.
Clear the Clutter
Give yourself a fresh start. First, take a deep breath. Take a little time to clear the clutter from a table or desk. Clutter can make us feel unorganized and overwhelmed. Pick a room or even a corner of a room and give yourself some time to make space. Clear and organize your things so you can breathe and think things through.
Check In
Once you have a place to work, spend a little time checking in with yourself. How are you feeling? If you’re feeling discouraged, what’s gotten you there? What roadblocks have landed in your path? What do you need to shift or change to move forward? Utilize your planner or notebook to journal your thoughts. This is a good time to brain dump whatever is on your mind. We love the Ideas layout for free writing. This simple act of emptying your mind can bring clarity to your needs and wants as you go forward.
Plan
Now that you’ve had a chance to check in, map out your long term plan. Your planner pages are the perfect place to do this. We like the Year at a Glance pages, or even the Project Planning pages, depending on what you’re working on. You may have a long term goal you’ve been working to reach and you’ve simply had an interruption in your progress. Think about setting small, achievable, benchmark goals. These are simple, specific goals to keep your progress humming along. Maybe your goal is to speak another language fluently. Your smaller, benchmark goals might be daily language exercises through a language app or attending a weekly conversation hour. Write down your big goal and list your benchmark goals.
Baby Steps
When we talk about smaller, benchmark goals, the more specific you can be the better! Instead of saying, “I want to work out more,” you might say, “I will work out on Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6am at my local gym.” These are goals you can measure and track. Use your daily and weekly planning pages to map your progress. Tracking in the habits section is an easy way to check in each day. Many of our Weekly layouts include these simple habit tracking sections. The Story Board pages also work beautifully for mapping out the smaller steps of your goals in a visual format.
Goals & Progress
Think about choosing one day a week as your weekly check in day. Five or ten minutes at the start of the week is the perfect time to map your week. Jot down the habits you want to track for the week, as well as your to-dos, errands, appointments, and meal plan. Taking a few minutes to plan and schedule all activities related to your goals will be a big help in making progress. Small changes + lots of consistency = a path toward your goal. Focus on the smallest, achievable goals you can follow through on.
What’s Your Why
As you get back on track toward meeting your goals, think about your why. What is the purpose you’re working towards? What is motivating you to get there? Why is this goal important to you? Who are you doing this for? Journal your thoughts. By exploring these questions you may unlock some new ideas and clarification on what you truly need and want. Ultimately your original goal may have shifted and changed!
Positivity
When in doubt, stay positive. Breathe. Get back to basics. Give thanks for the small wonders of life. Jot down the things you are grateful for. We love to use the month at a glance pages for listing our daily gratitude entries. Many of our Weekly/Daily pages include space for gratitude entries too. Our Mood Tracker page is also great for keeping track of your emotions each day. This is a great visual tool, especially when you see patterns emerging in the colors. If you notice one particular color building, think about which habits (or lack of) are overlapping.
Don’t Expect Perfection
When we fall out of routine or sync with our goals it can be really discouraging. Any progress we’ve made feels fragile, like it can be wiped away with just a few days out of rhythm. In these moments, give yourself some grace. Perfection is simply not an option. You are going to have days where you abandon plans, are too tired to show up, you take the easiest route, or forget things. It’s okay! Don’t let these moments sabotage your progress. We don’t need to automatically shift to an all or nothing mindset. Simply pick up and get back to it. Get back to your why, your small goals, your day to day check ins. Even one day back to your routine will help shift your mindset from the rut you’re in and get you back on track.
We’d love to hear from you! How do you stay connected and motivated to meet your goals?