5 Tips to Regain Momentum When You’re Not Achieving Your Goals

When you are making little progress towards achieving your goals, it can be very discouraging and disheartening, causing you to lose focus and momentum, or even give up.

You may think that you don’t understand why you’re not getting anywhere and blame it on everything under the sun.  You’re not being given the opportunities… you’ve not get the money… they’re just not interested… or whatever reason you tell yourself.  But if you dig deep, I believe that you know the real reason why it’s not happening.

If you’re not getting the results you want, it’s time to have an honest, open review to find out exactly why things are not happening for you, before you become totally demotivated, discouraged and give up.

These 5 tips will help you regain momentum, refresh your motivation and give you the encouragement to pick yourself back up and continue working towards your prize.

     1.  Get real

 A lot of motivational and self-help stuff that is out there encourages you to reach for the stars telling you that you can have anything that you want.  But what a lot of this stuff doesn’t tell you is that you have to keep it real.  There needs to be some realism in terms of what it is that you want to achieve.

Is your goal too big for you at this moment in time?  Whilst I’m all for setting big, hairy, scary goals, if you’re goals are too big, it can overwhelm you.

Is this the case with you?  Is your goal so big, hairy and scary that it overwhelms you and causes you to procrastinate?  If so, break your goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.  Steps that will still challenge and stretch you, ones that won’t overwhelm you, then focus on taking one step at a time.

Re-evaluate your goal and make sure that you’re not trying to achieve a mission that is impossible.

     2. Get back your focus

With all the distractions around us it is easy to lose focus and chase after the shiny objects enticing us away from our paths.  We perceive these shiny objects to offer a short cut that will get us there even more quickly than we can on our own.

Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam and taken the back roads thinking it will get you there quicker, only to find that its taken you twice as long to reach your destination than if you’d just sat in the traffic and waited for things to clear?  It is often the same thing with the ‘noise’ from these shiny objects.  You chase them one after the other, only to find yourself back at square one. No further along in achieving your goal.

Re-assess what is needed to achieve your goal.  Work out the exact route you need to take in order to achieve it and stick to it.

The next time you come face to face with a shiny object that seeks to distract you, ask yourself, will this really help me get to where I want to get to?  Or is it just a distraction because I am overwhelmed, don’t know what to do or how to do it, I’m fearful or feeling discouraged or demotivated. 

If it is one of the latter, what can you do to overcome this?

     3.  Take a break

It might seem counterproductive to stop and rest when you’re not getting the results that you want.  But sometimes, having a break and approaching the situation with a fresh pair of eyes can reignite your creativity and thinking, enabling you to come up with more innovative ways of doing things.

When we’re working towards a goal, particularly if there is a lot riding on the outcome, it is easy to compromise on our sleep.  We think we need to be at it 24/7 and push on rather than making time to rest and play.

We are all incredibly creative, resourceful beings, capable of achieving extraordinary things.  But when we’re tired and we’ve got our minds over crammed with negative stuff, we are not able to achieve our optimal performance.

Take a break and make some time to rest and play.

     4.  Be consistent

How consistent are you?  Have you been totally honest in answering this question?  If you know that in order to achieve a particular goal it requires you taking specific action, once, twice, three times a day, week, month, or whatever frequency is needed, have you stuck to this consistently?

Really?

Or, was there one morning when you were tired so didn’t do what you needed to do, or, did you take the action once or twice but because nothing happened, you’ve become discouraged and are ready to give up?

I frequently get clients who are starting out in business who tell me that they can’t get clients.  When you run a business, particularly when you are starting out, you have to be consistent with your marketing activities.  You need to do this to raise your profile, increase your visibility and develop relationships so that people know, like and trust you and what it is that you have to offer. 

Often what happens is that they will do a particular activity a few times but because they don’t get the results immediately, they become discouraged and disheartened.  They lose focus and don’t do what they know they need to do consistently and therefore don’t get the results.

What frequency do you need to be doing what is needed in order to get the results you want?

For the next month, make a conscious effort to be consistent and consistently do what it is that you need to do, at the frequency in which you need to do it and let me know how you get on.

     5.  Get help

No man (or woman) is an island.  As humans we are relational and need the support and encouragement of others at certain times in our lives.  We can’t do it all by ourselves all of the time and you know what, it is OK to ask for help.

If you’re working in isolation, when the obstacles come your way, or the pity party starts as a result of your self sabotage, continuing in isolation may only cause you to wallow in your circumstances, rather than moving you nearer to the results you want.

Who can help you?

Identify what it is that you need support with and get help from the person best equipped to help you with it.

It can be very discouraging when you feel that you’re working hard towards a goal and not getting the results you want.  If you are honest with yourself, you know the real reason why it is not happening and if you dig deep, you will identify what it is that you need to do to make it happen.

What obstacles are getting in the way of you achieving your goals?

ABOUT ME:

I am a Personal Development, Career, Business Coach, Writer, Speaker, UK top 50 Business Adviser and the founder of Abounding Solutions. I help women to be authentic, bold, confident leaders  and excel in their careers and businesses. I also help organisations develop the talent pipeline of women employees so that more women make it to senior management roles.

I write here on LinkedIn, on my website and on Huffington Post on subjects to help women achieve optimal potential in their careers and businesses.

Are you a high achieving woman? A woman striving to be the best that you can be.  A woman who wants to be a sphere of influence and be an authentic, bold, confident leader, excelling in your career or business.  Do you want to make a difference and a positive impact in your respective field or community? Do you want to do this AND be true to who you are, whilst living a meaningful, purposeful, balanced life?  If this is you and you're not part of the community, come on over and join the conversation here.