You’ve set a goal, started a new healthy habit and are feeling excited, energized and pumped to start changing something in your life. 

But as the days go by, slowly your motivation starts to dwindle. 

→ All of a sudden getting up earlier does not sound that enticing - especially when you are not physically seeing any results in all the effort you are putting in. 

→ Eating that salad seems less appetizing than going to the drive through. 

→ Building that business you were so excited about seems to have lost its luster as you feel overwhelmed by all the information. 

Whatever your new habit is - slowly your motivation starts to wane. 

It is easy to feel unmotivated to keep moving one foot in front of the other towards our goals and healthy habits. 

Some days, it can feel down right tortuous. 

Trust me when I tell you this - you are not the only one. 

However there are ways you can prepare yourself for when this dip in motivation comes - because trust me it comes to all of us. 

If you want to learn some practical tips on how you can prepare for those moments of motivational blips - keep reading. 

The Major Mindset Shift You Need to Stay Motivated

It has been drilled into our head to make our SMART goals.

Although SMART goals have their time and place in our goal setting lives, when creating a vision for your life - the big picture, SMART goals don't work.

SMART goals are  often based on external values (lose 10 lbs, make x amount of money, get more likes on instagram) versus internal values (live a vegetarian lifestyle, create financial freedom for more time, build a supportive online community).

When you only go surface level on your goals and desires… it is easy to fall into old patterns and find yourself unmotivated to make the changes you desire.

This is why I strongly suggest shifting your mindset from setting goals to setting intentions. Setting intentions focuses on  HOW you want to live your life from moment to moment.

By doing this you are embracing (and living as) the type of person you want to become which creates fundamental shifts in how you make choices moment to moment.  Grounding you in the present while still taking intentional action towards your future goals.

This is a mindshift that is easy to make - and if you are interested I encourage you to start here with this free intention setting workbook to help you discover WHO you want to BE and HOW you want to live. 

8 Practical Tips to Keep You Motivated

Everyone experiences a loss of motivation when creating new habits. Knowing this is going to happen the best thing you can do is prepare for it. Below are some practical tips that may help you prepare for when you lose motivation. 

1. Set reminders 

A favourite quote of mine by Zig Zigler…”People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.” When we create new habits we are working on reprogramming our subconscious beliefs and patterns that have been there for decades. Our mind is very, very powerful and can easily convince us why we should just stay in our comfort zone. One way to physically remind yourself of your dreams and goals is to intentionally set up reminders. These can look like: 

• An inspirational quote as a background on your phone
• A phone alarm with a saying that resonates with you - make it go off once per day
• Cue cards and/or sticky notes with your goals written on them placed strategically beside your bed, on the bathroom mirror or anywhere else you will see them daily
• A ‘Dream Life’ Pinterest Board - Add all the things you want in your dream life on a Pinterest board and go back and add/look at it weekly to remind yourself of the life you desire
• A Vision Board -old school style - cut out of paper and pasted onto a bristol board
• A Dream or Manifesting Journal - where you write out all the things you desire, why you desire them and how it will feel when you reach them. 

2. Follow people who inspire you

Prioritize what information you are letting into your life. Do a social media detox.  Is the first thing you see everyday your opinionated friend's judgmental view? Prioritize who you see first on your Facebook page by following pages that inspire you and change the settings to see them first inr feed. On Instagram engage and like posts from people you admire and their content will naturally come into your feed first. Intentionally sprinkle inspiration into your life. 

3. Check your mindset

Ask yourself why you are feeling unmotivated? Is it because you do not believe you can achieve what you are going for? Is it that you are not seeing instant results? Is it that you are setting up unrealistic expectations for yourself and being hard on yourself? When you feel the motivation waning go inside of yourself and do a bit of digging. I know this can feel scary - but if you don't start changing the way you view things, things will never change. Bringing awareness to how you are feeling and acknowledging it is such a simple and POWERFUL tool that so many people pass over. That conscious awareness is pivotal in catching yourself slip and re-aligning with your healthier habits. 

4. Believe it can happen for you

Whatever your goal is, whatever the lifestyle you want to live is - you have to start BELIEVING it can happen for you. It happens for other people - why are you any different? One thing I always bring my attention back to is “if they can do it, I can do it”. This can be HARD to embrace because our self limiting beliefs can be soo powerful and ingrained in us. However when you start ‘calling out’ those beliefs you have (I’m not smart enough, have enough money, no support, ect) and building up new beliefs you can and will begin to transform your beliefs. If you are needing some help on this check out this free self limiting belief worksheet to help guide you through how to shift your mindset. 

5. Journal it out

Seriously….writing stuff out, getting it out of your head, onto paper and looking at it from another perspective is magic. Give yourself the space and permission to simply write out your feelings on paper - let it out. Scribble, draw, angrily scribble.. Just let it out…. Don't overthink just put your emotions onto the paper and feel the release. Doing this allows you to free up energetic space in your body to refocus and re-align. 

6. Allow yourself space 

So often we get caught up in all the ‘to do’s’ of life and achieving our goals that we forget to slow down and give ourselves some mental space to recharge. Just the other day I was feeling information overload, my mind was jumping to a million tasks and my motivation was waning quickly. I gave myself permission to take the day off - no habits, no social media, no educational reading, just a day for me to re-charge, journal, breathe, be outside, do nothing. We often forget the power of JUST BEING and how this can fundamentally shift us back into a place of motivation. 

7. Ditch the ‘all-or-nothing’ mentality and view your perceived ‘failures’ as opportunities 

Notice how I said perceived failures? So often we give up on a habit if we do something we consider or have deemed a ‘failure’. On a no-carb diet and ate a piece of bread? Wanted to be healthier but did not work out today? Trying to build a blog but did not write today? These are not failures but rather opportunities to learn from. Yet so often we are quick to throw in the towel as we embrace an ‘all -or-nothing’ mentality. Take each moment as a new opportunity to wipe the slate clear and keep moving forward. So what if you ‘slipped’ up….you still have your whole life ahead of you… reflect on what the slip up was trying to teach you and move on…. 

8. Incorporate visualization into your life

Our subconscious minds are so much more powerful than we know. Neuroscience tells us over and over again the power of mental rehearsal and visualization has on our lives. Start adding visualizations into your nighttime routine and keep dreaming of your perfect life in detail. This is such a powerful technique that neuroscience has shown to work. But so many people do not use it in their liver. However, when you learn to embrace it, you will start seeing magic in your life. 

Your motivation is going to wane at some point. It is inevitable. However by being prepared and knowing it will happen at some point or another, you are creating ‘a safety net’ of sorts to keep you moving forward and get you back on track. 

Remember, we all have those days where we just need to stick our heads in the sand, binge on netflix, and throw ourselves an epic pity party to just numb out.  

And this is okay. 

It is okay to get off track, to not be perfect on whatever journey you are on. 

The key is that you do not want to get stuck in that place of not moving forward forever…

You want to give yourself the space to breathe, to take a break,  to re-align and to re-focus. 

These are just a few practical strategies you can use. Please do not get overwhelmed trying to use them all. Pick one or two and try them out in your life. 

Be the scientist of what works and what doesn’t. 

Time is going to pass regardless, but the more you can be the scientist of your own life, the more you are going to keep taking intentional steps towards whatever goal or healthy habit you are wanting in your life. 

Do you have any ideas to add? I would love to hear them! Comment below and let me know. 

Here are some other article you may find helpful:

10 Habits for Alignment in 2020

How to Set Intentions and Create Lasting Change.

5 Micro Habits to Live a More Aligned Life

15 Ways to to Live a More Intentional Life