6 Gold Keys to Win Your Motivational Battle and Make This Your Best Year Ever

Goal Setting Often Gets A Bad Rap

While we may start the year off with grandiose plans to become more healthy and fit (guilty), spend more quality time with family and friends (guilty too), get our finances in order (3 for 3), or hit our business targets, our New Year's resolve often doesn't make it to February.     

Of course, LIFE can get in the way of keeping us from achieving our goals. 

Whether it's freedom from debt, becoming more healthy and fit, improving your important relationships, or hitting those business targets, here are 6 tested and true Gold Key Strategies to keep you on track to achieve what you want and finish on top of your Life List: 

Key #1 ~ Set Stepper Goals

Some of us are wired to plan out our long-term goals, but most of us are more short-sighted and respond to rewards we can enjoy almost immediately.  This is exactly why chocolate cake, providing instant gratification, can distract you from a long-term goal like achieving your desired weight - a distant future reward.  

To overcome our own impatience, we can set ourselves up for success by breaking down the ultimate goal into several frequent, smaller goals, enjoying success along the way, and sustaining our motivational drive with rewards.

Rather than skipping exercise altogether because an hour a day seems daunting, break up your exercise into 10-20 minute sesssions performed more frequently throughout the day.  

Walking just 15 minutes a day

1. Reduces your risk of heart disease
2. Lowers your stress level
3. Increases your energy, and
4. Improves the quality of your sleep  

Those are immediate rewards.

Step it up to 30 minutes a day for numerous physical, mental, and even emotional benefits and you'll be extending your longevity too. 

Key #2 ~ A Clean, Blank Slate

A symbolic transition day like New Years' or a Birthday can provide a motivational boost to get you started toward your goal, but smaller opportunities for a fresh start happen all the time - each month, each week, or even every day.   

How often have you told yourself that you'd start your new diet on Monday?

Fresh starts are awesome, but it's important to avoid procrastination and making excuses for not putting in the effort it takes to achieve success.

We may start the new health plan on Monday and find our motivation waning by Thursday and give up on the week, indulging in pizza, ice cream, and beer saying we'll recommit on Monday again - seeing no gains (as in, losses) on the scale. 

Set yourself up for the win by combining a fresh start with setting achievable milestones and action plans along the way to your ultimate goal - Every Single Day.  

You'll win more often and feel the reward of triumph (rather than failure) more often too - increasing your chances for overall success.

Key #3 ~ Banish the Negative Gremlins in your Ear

Bad-mouth yourself and you'll continue to derail your efforts.  

Commit to Positive Self-Talk ONLY. 

Boost your motivation by switching to only positive messaging about yourself...to yourself.  

If it helps, pretend you're encouraging your best friend to overcome her challenges.

Practicing self-compassion will help you manage setbacks, which are inevitable, and stay on track.  

Do not give up on your ultimate goal.  Invest consistent, daily energy. Your persistence will pay off.

Key #4 ~ Keep Your Goals Realistic

Setting an unattainable goal, like losing 50lbs before your high-school reunion next month, doesn't set you up for the win.  

Unrealistic intentions only reinforce negative belief patterns.  When you set impossible goals and you miss the target, you'll be telling yourself:  

• I'll never make it.  
• I'm a failure. 
• It's too hard.  
• I can't.

What your mind hears you say to yourself, it believes as true.  See how that works against you? That negative thinking only damages your feelings of self-worth rather than boosting your motivation.  

Instead, practice positive self-talk daily (Key #3). Multiple times a day is better.  Out loud and in front of a mirror for extra effectiveness.  

Here's one of my favourites from Nelson Mandela:

I never lose.  Either I win, or I learn.

These last two strategies are something Marie Forleo teaches that I've practiced for years and have found to be invaluable. 

Marie also recommends Purging and Pruning, a super simple, freeing 2-Step process that'll help you move forward and toward your goals: 

Key #5 ~ The Brain Dump (Purge)

1. Take a pen
2. Take a blank sheet of paper
3. Write down ALL that you want to accomplish over the next 12 months  

Don't edit yourself at this point.  

Get it ALL out on paper. 

By writing it all down, you'll be freeing up space in your mind and allowing the creative, problem, and task-solving process to begin.  

Focus on 3 main areas while you're writing everything down:

I.  Yourself

• Health and fitness goals do you have?
• Self-Care plans?
• Mindset Adjustments needed?
• Finances?
• Philanthropy?
• Creative Projects?
• Home Living Space?

How do YOU want to grow this year?
Write it all down.


II.  Relationships

Who are the most important people in your life and what do you want for them?

• Family
• Friends
• Visits or Adventures
• Time and Focus
• Improvements

Write it all down.

III.  Business ~ Career

What projects or goals do you want to work on in your professional life this year?

• Expand your team?
• Launch a product?
• Write a Book?
• Develop a new product or service?
• Website launch or overhaul?
• Set up your processes so everything runs more efficiently?
• Learn a new skill set?
• Hire a new coach?
• Update your resume?
• Find a job you love?
• Create your freedom business?

How do you want to uplevel your career or grow your business?

Write it all down. No edits.  Just get it all on paper in front of you - which sets you up for the next step.

Key #6 ~ Prioritize. Focus. Strategize (Prune)

How does a gardener keep her plantings vibrant and healthy?  

The gardener prunes.  Sometimes aggressively.  By pruning away the excess, even healthy branches and leaves, the plant's energy becomes laser-focused on GROWTH.  

The same thing happens to us.   

Pruning is a difficult process, especially for Type A, driven people who tend to take on the world and want to tick off every box. 

When we focus on what we REALLY want to achieve, we actually achieve more.  

Look at your list.

What do you really want to accomplish?  

Use the 3 Filters to make a new, prioritized list for yourself:

1. What is the payoff for making this project happen?
2. How will this project benefit others - people you love, your team, society in general?  What's the payoff for them?
3. Who will you have to become for this goal to become a reality?

Keep in mind that any project requiring you to stretch and grow, to learn something new, to get up and off your couch of comfort - and INTO ACTION will be the most worthwhile and rewarding.

Focus on the critical few items in each section, rather than the trivial many.  Crossing it off your list doesn't mean you'll never get to it.  You can tackle all of your projects after the priority ones are completed. 

And there you have it.  A stepping stone way to achieve what it is you REALLY want for yourself.  

 This Purge and Prune process is something I do each quarter to help me stay on track with my goals.  I get especially excited about it between Christmas and the New Year.

Would you like some help to put these strategies into place in your life? 

If so, I'd be delighted to chat and invite you to connect with me for a FREE Rapid Results Strategy Session.

We can discuss what you'd like to focus on this year and put together an Action Plan to achieve your winningz results. 

Following our chat, you'll have:

• Crystal Clarity about what you want
• An Action Plan to achieve it
• Some tools to help you along the way

 

About the Author:

Andrea Raco, is a Certified Success and Life Enrichment Coach, Founder of Coach for Life, and the Curator of Gold Key Club ~ a private community for Ladypreneurs, Supermoms, and Sisters making a difference in the world.  

Contact her at andrea@coachforlife.ca.

Find out more about her services:  www.coachforlife.ca