A few months into 2022 means that a lot of us are starting to struggle to keep up with our new year’s resolutions. Living healthier, eating well and exercising are okay to do for a few weeks, but what happens when you start losing steam?
Staying motivated can be tough, but it’s not impossible. If you can feel yourself veering off track, there are a few tips and tricks you can use to get yourself re-motivated for the next few months.
Write Down Goals
First of all, reaching goals is impossible when you don’t know what they are. Goals should be achievable and measurable if we want to make sure we’re reaching them. A good way to start is by writing down the health goals you want to achieve this year.
That might be to lose 5lbs, include more fruits and veggies in your diet or to run further than you ever had before. These are all great goals to have, and writing them down, alongside a plan on how you’ll achieve them will help you get there step by step.
Plan Rewards
Rewarding yourself for sticking to healthy habits and reaching your goals is a great way to motivate yourself to keep going. You can reward yourself with outings or things like healthy lifestyle treats.
Things like a pretty glass water bottle with a silicone sleeve will motivate you to hydrate more, or a cute new gym outfit that will have you excited to hit the treadmill.
Consider rewarding yourself when you hit milestones to your goals – going to the gym consistently for a month, losing 2lbs, sticking to a healthy bedtime schedule for a few weeks, including 5 new healthy vegetarian dishes in your repertoire, etc.
Start Small and Achievable
When your goals are huge and could take years to achieve – or if they aren’t measurable at all – it can be hard to stay motivated to achieve them. Starting off with small and achievable goals will be helpful.
When your health and fitness goals are small and simple, you’ll be far more likely to reach them, and quite quickly too. Seeing yourself hit those small goals and progressing is incredibly motivating and will inspire you to keep the momentum and push even harder to keep seeing those results.
Start small with something like one workout per week, a healthy smoothie for breakfast once per week or even something like prioritizing sleep.
Use a Habit Tracker
Implementing new, healthy habits in your life is never a bad thing, but when you’re not holding yourself accountable or checking in on yourself, those habits can slip really easily.
Using a habit tracker is not only a good way to see how you’re doing with your habits, but it’s also super motivating. Getting to check that box every single day for weeks on end and watching the numbers go up on your tally will make you want to keep going and going.
You can download a habit tracking app on your phone, or simply track your habits with a pen and paper in a notebook.
Read more about my Lifebook journey.
Create a Vision Board
When you can visualize how you want your life to look, it’s a lot more motivating to push yourself to actually get there.
Create a vision board to stick on your wall, or even a digital version to set as your phone’s lock screen so you’ll see it every day. On your vision board, include pictures of what you want to achieve in your lifestyle: images of healthy food, gym outfits you want to wear, yoga poses you’d like to be able to do, etc.
Try to avoid body-image-based pictures since we all look different and have different genetics. Rather than focusing on looking like someone else, focus on what you can do to look YOUR best!
Read more about how I make my vision board every year.
Find Exercise You Love
Health, strength, and progression in your fitness all come down to one major factor: consistency. This is almost impossible to achieve when the exercise you’re doing is something you absolutely hate.
When times are tough and you’re tired or lazy, it’ll be way easier to motivate yourself to do something you know you enjoy than forcing yourself to go for a 5 am run when you hate nothing more.
Try out different types of exercise – individual sports, team sports, weight lifting, gym glasses, yoga or pilates, swimming, running, cycling, dancing, you name it. There are about a million different ways to move your body, and there’s definitely something out there that will make you happy and motivated.
One of the best things one can do is play golf. It’s a time-consuming yet relaxing game that helps one develop focus, solve problems, and keep you active. The beauty of playing golf is the number of skills it teaches you. Investing in a golf simulator can be an efficient and effective way to improve your short game. You’ll also boost your confidence, which is valuable for any golfer.
