subject: Is Your Motivation Beginning To Fade Into Oblivion? [print this page] While exercise and diet are important aspects of getting in shape, they are usually not the rate limiting factors. In reality, the mental game is what throws most people off.
Unfortunately, most people simply forget about the mental game.
So, without further ado, here is how to prevent your motivation from fading:
1. Measure what you are doing: You need to have some type of measurement system for your progress. If you don't, you will tend to overlook what you have done as you look back on your journey. In the absence of objective records, you will always shorthand yourself.
2. Avoid perfectionism: From business to nature, the top performers have the highest rates of failure. You see, paradoxically, the more you fail the higher your chances of success are. So don't think you should have a perfect journey.
3. Change your environment before changing yourself: Too many people focus on self control and forget about how their environment is having a negative impact on their progress. You see, self control is like a muscle, if you use it too much it begins to wear out.
4. Don't settle for small goals: In fact, the bigger your goal is the more likely it is that you will take extreme action to reach it. So never give in to small goals, always have a super big goal. This is the true goal to achieving high levels of motivation.
5. Don't use a whip, use a carrot: This strategy will make it very easy for you to get moving. You see, people that whip themselves into action find out that they eventually lose the will to move forward. You are far better off running towards something positive.
6. Avoid baby steps: The only time you should reduce the amount of work you are doing is when you feel absolutely overwhelmed. You see, if you take too many baby steps you won't see fast results. And in the absence of results you are more likely to jump ship.
Optimizing your mental game is critical if you want to be able to reach your goal. So take heed of the advice in this article and put it to practice!
