“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Zig Ziglar
The one tool I simply CANNOT live without when it comes to goal setting (and success) is a large 30x36 dry erase wall calendar. It's fairly inexpensive (less than $25) and you can get it off of Amazon.
Here is an example of my wall calendar for 2023:
If you look closely, you will see I recorded a lot of things on this little calendar. Races that were coming up. The dates I took allergy shots. Birthdays.
And there were also numbers indicating the consecutive days that I went with (or without) something.
For example, in 2023, I gave up caffeine. You can see each day I went without that morning cup of caffeinated goodness marked by a number in a brown Vis-a-vis marker. I wrote that number down every day until one day I woke up, didn't crave that cup of coffee, and eventually even forgot to track how many days it had been.
I'm doing the same thing on my 2024 wall calendar (except this year my race schedule is sadly missing atm. Sigh. I'm still trying to figure out where the year will take me on that one).
There is another little tool I like to keep that is fairly inexpensive, and that is a Leuchtturm soft-cover bullet journal. Often, you can get these on sale for under $20 plus shipping. This I just keep for fun... I make a grid with numbers on it, and once a week, I color in the numbers I've gone with (or without). It's kinda like getting an old-school scratch and sniff sticker from the teacher for getting an A on your spelling test.
For me, that's all the motivation I need... but I need it daily. Writing that number on the calendar every morning (or evening as the case may be), is that daily reminder that I'm doing something positive for myself. And that little coloring exercise when I'm doing my weekly planning gives my brain that little "accomplishment" boost it needs to keep going the next week.
I've tried the "Reward yourself with a massage" or "Go buy yourself some new clothes" type of system they tout on the tv, and it just didn't work for me. I'd eat that sundae, or drink that can of pop and still treat myself to that massage, because by golly it was already on the calendar. And I needed a new pair of jeans cause I couldn't fit into the ones I had.
Ridiculous.
And not much of a motivator.
But that cheap little calendar and bojo thing seems to work. So I'm sticking to it again this year.
And every time I write that number down, or color in that little square, I think about how good it feels to hit that target everyday. And if my clothes fit better by the end of the month, well.... THEN I'll treat myself to a new pair of pants.
Feel free to leave a comment about what helps motivate you!
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