Finding your Personal Time Line Motivation Strategy
Whatever it is you hope to achieve in your life you will be need to identify some kind of motivation to get you started and keep your momentum going until you achieve your goal.
Time line motivation planning provides you with strategies for up front motivation to get you through long term goal achievement. It provides you with a plan for how to get motivated and stay motivated to achieve your big long term goals.
Once you’ve identified and clarified this plan, you have created your very own personal motivation strategy that will help you get whatever goal you want.
Anyone starting off on a project that they are excited about will have no problem finding energy and enthusiasm for it.
At the beginning point the motivation strategy needs to concentrate mainly on keeping this enthusiasm under control!
Once you get towards the end of the project and you are so close to achieving your goal that you can almost taste it, then the enthusiasm and energy for the project increases and the momentum and motivation carries you through to your goal.
The sheer adrenalin of being so close to completion can be a motivator in itself. At this point the end is really in sight and you make the final burst down the home stretch.
Unfortunately before you get to that near-finish situation, you must get through the middle section of the project, and this can be the hardest to find motivation for.
Sometimes know as the quitting zone, it’s here that many worthwhile projects go awry as the initial enthusiasm is now depleted.
Although the project/goal is still desired, there’s less energy for it now, the end still seems to be a long way off, and progress may seem to be slower than you’d like. (When the going gets tough the tough get going. — Robert Schuller)
In many people, one of the main problems affecting motivation is in the length of time it takes to get a project completed. This is where learning how to get motivated and planning in advance for these tough times, really pays off.
When planning, think about your project in terms of a time line or work flow chart.
Break down your long term goal. What are the notable midway points along the time line between the start and end of the project? These can be your shorter term goals, and identifying these on your time line will help you to make a motivation strategy. Create the work flow time chart to pace yourself at a steady work rate. Challenge yourself.
You can use these short term goals as an integral part of your motivation strategy. List your short term goals on the time line, and use each short-term goal as a step so that you then divide each goal into identifiable tasks. Enter these on your time line flow chart.
This way you can quantify your progress for easy measurement. Charting your progress visually assures you that although you haven’t yet reached your main goal, you are working in the right direction and you are accomplishing things along the way. You can see how far along the line you are and measure progress easily.
If visualizing your progress isn’t a compelling enough motivator, then use rewards in your motivation strategy too. Again using the short-term goals on your project time line identify some “treats” that you can use as rewards to accomplishing each of these.
The rewards don’t need to be expensive, but something as simple as having a favorite cup of coffee at your local coffee shop with an encouraging friend, four wheeling out in the back country, buying a new DVD or any other reward that makes the completion of each goal desirable for you.
You choose what will motivate you to continue. That’s why it’s personal, what would work for me or someone else may not work for you. Learning your own personal motivation strategy and putting it into your goals planning time line helps you stay motivated when times may get tough.
You could have a list of rewards or increase the value of the rewards as your project progresses. Set small rewards for the little tasks that make up a small goal, and then have larger rewards for accomplishing each of the larger goals along your time line. Enter these “rewards” on your time line so you can visualize these wins in advance.
The important thing in creating a motivation strategy is that you tailor it to what will work for you. You know how to get motivated to achieve your goals. Use this to your advantage.
You know what motivates you, you also know what stops your motivation dead, so you need to factor into your motivation strategy a plan for what you will do to kick-start your motivation if you find that you feel blocked. Little motivational kick starts will keep you moving forward towards your main goal.
To accomplish any major project/dream/goal is a big achievement, and that’s not usually something that can be done with little effort. However, by putting some time line motivation strategies in place before you start your project, you will have a greater chance of succeeding and achieving your goal. And have a lot more fun doing it.
What do you think? Are you visual in nature, and would a time line be beneficial to your goal setting and personal motivation program? A time line can make all the difference in the world to whether you get motivated enough to achieve your “big” or “life” goals. Go for it.