Stay Motivated by Looking at How Far You’ve Come

Sometimes these goals and resolutions of ours can get really hard, but maintaining the necessary levels of motivation to keep moving forward can be done in a number of ways. Motivating yourself can be as simple as tricking your brain into seeing things in a new light. One of the best ways to gain fresh perspective is actually to examine your past. It’s true. While many believe the past is best left behind, taking a look back can be incredibly useful when you purposefully pull out only the good things. Let me show you how you can stay motivated by looking at how far you’ve come.

Look Back and Examine Your Past

You can start by looking at the goal or resolution you’re currently pursuing to find examples of times you’ve moved forward along this path. For example, if you’ve hit a plateau in your weight loss, look back on the ways you’ve been successful on your journey so far. Reminding yourself of these weight loss accomplishments can give you the resolve to tackle the obstacle you’re up against right now.

If you’re finding it difficult just starting out and you don’t have successes to pull from with regard to your newest goal, you’ll need to take a different approach. This one involves finding other areas in your life in which you’ve had success and have overcome difficulties. While that time may not be the same as this current challenge, this kind of self-examination lets you know that you have done hard things before. It gives you the confidence to know you can do them again.

Write It Down

Once you’ve started thinking of the times in which you’ve been successful in the past, write them down as evidence you can return to during tough times. Record the past triumphs related to your current goal. Also, also choose other accomplishments of which you’re especially proud. Post photos of certificates and awards or copies of positive employment reviews and congratulatory notes from colleagues where you can see them for encouragement. Or perhaps you’d rather keep a special file of these that you review often for encouragement. These can be a great addition to your file of visual reminders.

Don’t stop there. If you want to keep the motivation going and continue to see the worth in your current pursuits, it’s a good idea to keep a weekly record of small things you do well. Include tasks you accomplish for work, small triumphs in your personal life, or projects you’ve taken care of around the house. Doing so can be a powerful confidence booster for when you’re not feeling that great about your potential. Make a point to look back at these for encouragement.

My This Is the Life I Choose Goals Planner and Journal reminds you daily to note what you’ve accomplished. If you haven’t requested your free 2-week sampler, do so here.

Make a Plan

Finally, you’ll want to use the evidence you collect as a resource to make a plan to attack your current struggle. Going back to our hypothetical weight loss plateau, you could look back and review the goals you’ve accomplished already on the road to becoming more fit. Write down the tangible steps you took to get there and then take it farther by making a list of the types of personal strengths you used to make those goals a reality.

Do the same thing by examining an unrelated accomplishment if you don’t have anything relevant to the immediate task at hand. Then brainstorm ways you can use those qualities to move past this slump. You may have discovered that it was your sheer stubbornness that helped you lose those first 10 pounds or so. Some may see being stubborn as a negative, but that’s not necessarily so in this case. Don’t be afraid to delve deep within and to be honest about what you find. Use those discoveries to your advantage to move push past your roadblock.

I hope you have an idea of how you can use past accomplishments to keep you motivated toward your goal or resolution. I’ve always found this to be a really empowering way to get back on track.