By Citizens Journal Staff
Even if you sincerely want to make changes in your life, it can be surprisingly hard to do so. It’s so much easier and more comfortable to keep doing things the same way you always have even when that approach no longer makes you happy. How do you push past that and make the changes anyway? These tips can help you start.
Know Your Why
Why do you want to change your life? You might never have considered this question before, and you may be surprised to find that the answer is something along the lines of “I don’t know.” This can be a major source of your lack of motivation; you may realize that your reason is something like impressing someone else, which rarely offers real sustaining motivation for a tough task. Work on figuring out your why and write it down to refer back to when your resolve gets shaky.
Know Your Obstacles
You may also find yourself struggling with a lack of motivation because of the obstacles and challenges that you are facing, some of which you may not have even articulated. Naming them and then figuring out how to overcome them will boost your motivation. If you want to start a small business, one common obstacle you may have run into is how to get funding. Having Accion Opportunity Fund business loans available are one type of small business loan that you can take out to help you grow your company. Once you have identified a concrete problem and a concrete solution in this way, it is often much easier to move forward with your project.
Habit Over Motivation
Motivation is important, but sometimes when you think that you need it, what you really need is habit or routine. Think about something you do regularly, like showering. Do you wait until you get really excited at the idea of taking a shower, or is it simply something you do on a regular basis because you need to be well-groomed for work or other obligations? If the life change you need to make is one that involves doing something fairly repetitive over and over, whether it’s writing a couple hundred words each day in order to complete a novel, running to train for a 10K or daily review of a foreign language, you may need to set aside the idea of being motivated on a regular basis and think more in terms of doing what you need to do regardless of how you’re feeling about it.
Small Steps
It can be easy to put off change forever by constantly telling yourself that you’re going to start something tomorrow, next week or next year. If this sounds familiar to you, choose something small that you can do right now that will advance you toward your goal. Now you no longer have to worry about when to start because you’ve already started. Life changing goals such as increasing financial literacy and reducing financial stress, making a major career change, or overhauling your health must be accomplished in increments. Think of what you want to achieve as a series of small steps like this, and remember that each day, you have the chance to make a new choice about whether to move forward or simply accept the status quo.
