Why structure is more important than motivation

Big Picture

When you want to achieve a goal, you often overestimate your motivation and underestimate the need for structure

Why this matters

If you assume that you will stay motivated to achieve your goals, you will often be disappointed by failures. Without a structure, your goal achievement is haphazard. Structure is what helps achieve goals and not motivation.

Case in point

We are at that time of the year when you think of how you fared with your 2022 goals. If you are like me, you have some goals you were highly motivated to achieve but fizzled out.

In analysing your failures, you might wrongly conclude that only if you had enough motivation, you could...

That conclusion is often wrong and does not make you successful next time. Your motivation is guaranteed to reduce over time and the environment will interfere with your well laid plans.

How can you reduce the need for motivation and a hassle-free environment, in goal achievement?

The following three critical things will increase your chances of achieving your goals.

1) Find an accountability partner. An accountability partner is a person who helps you avoid making easy excuses for not to reach your goals. The best accountability partner is someone already successfully doing what you want to do. Ask to join them. For example, if you want to start running, join that accountability partner on her morning runs.

2) Mornings are better than evenings: When you are working towards your goal, schedule to do it in the morning. Willpower reduces during the day and morning are usually more predictable than end of day.

If you are a family person you are familiar with many days where you get home and you have to shelve your plans. You must help with difficult homework from school, your child's temperature is high or there is load shedding. You end up missing your routine three consecutive days, and it's all gone.

3) Daily is better than weekly. Put the activities towards your goal on a daily schedule, instead of weekly. The more you repeat something, the more it stays top of mind.

Bottom line

If you want to increase your chances to achieve your goals next year, put in place a structure which makes goal achievement easy and possible.