Staying Motivated to Achieve Big Goals

Have you ever been in a position where you’ve set an ambitious goal with the intention of working hard to achieve it, but as time goes by, your motivation and focus fizzle out? We’ve all been there at one time or another, so if you’re in this situation right now, know that you’re not alone.

The process of setting yourself a new goal is novel and exciting. Imagining what your new future will be like is a fun experience, and often that’s enough motivation to push you into starting to take action to achieve your goal. The truth is, however, progress can be slow. The steps you need to take to achieve your goals can be tedious and restrictive, which is why you might choose to give up on your goals, or you may lose interest as your motivation and progress slowly dwindle.

As I shared in a recent coaching video , there's a really simple technique you can use to strengthen your commitment to reaching your goals over time. Research has shown mental contrasting to be an effective goal-setting technique, that helps you to stay on track to reach goals that are important to you:

There are three steps to mental contrasting.

Step 1: Envisioning what the future will look like when you reach an important goal.?

At this stage, you want to immerse yourself in imagining your future when you reach your goal. You may be working towards a promotion, creating more opportunities for you or financial security for your family. You may want to change direction entirely at work or create a work-life blend that affords you more time for your hobbies or family. Maybe you want to achieve a qualification that's important to you, or work on projects that hold meaning for you.

Whatever your goal is, take some time to think about what your life will be like when you achieve it. Ask yourself, what will you be doing day-to-day? What will you enjoy about this life? How will it feel? You can take this a step further and consider how reaching your goal will help others around you too.?

Step 2: Reflecting on your reality.

If you want to strengthen your commitment to your big goals and keep moving towards them even when it's tough, remind yourself why you're striving for them. This step involves thinking about your current situation - which isn't as desirable as where you want to be when you achieve your goal. This process can be painful as your thoughts are consumed by what you want to change in your life, and it isn't necessarily helpful to continually dwell on these thoughts, but it's necessary to take some time to reflect on where you are right now.

Consider the aspects of your current reality that you'd like to leave behind. In this step of mental contrasting, you want to remind yourself of what you'd like to change about your current reality.

Step 3: Considering the contrast between your reality and future goal.

The final stage of reflection is considering how life will change positively for you or others you care about when you reach your goal, compared with how you would describe your life today. Use this contrast as motivation to take action to reach your goals.?

Reflecting on the contrast between now and the future can help you consider how you'll tackle challenges that threaten goal achievement in advance of obstacles materialising. Considering potential challenges before they arise is useful practice because when you're in the moment facing obstacles head-on, it's often hard to find time to think about how to tackle a challenge and willpower can be lower, so it's trickier to stick to an action plan.

The idea is to think through how you will overcome potential obstacles ahead of time, so you're ready to overcome challenges in real time.?

Achieving personal and professional goals

Positive thinking alone won't necessarily encourage you to think about the practical steps you need to take to achieve your goals, or consider how you could tackle challenges that might arise - which is why mental contrasting is a more effective approach to help you reach your goals, compared with positive visioning about the future. It's the three stages of the mental contrasting technique combined that can help you stay committed to achieving goals, which over time will boost motivation and perseverance.

How you reach big goals

What are your tips for reaching goals that are important to you? Please feel free to share in the comments.

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