A couple of months ago, I ran my first 12k race. At around mile 6 (the race is 7.46 miles long), I started to question why I’d started the race. I wanted to know what made me think I could do such a thing – I was tired and ready to be done!
I kept moving, though. Both because I was highly motivated to finish and because my great coach was using a mantra to help motivate us to get to the end.
Likewise, in life, we sometimes hit the wall, and we don’t always have the option to take time off right then and there in order to recouperate and rejuvinate yourself.
Big goals may mean big walls
When you have big goals, it’s inevitable that at some point you’re going to hit a wall. What’s important is that you keep going. After all, when you have big goals, they’re not going to accomplish themselves. While sometimes the goal itself will motivate you to keep going, sometimes you need something more.
Come up with a mantra
Come up with a mantra that you can say to help coach yourself along. (Here are some from Success Magazine). You should choose your mantra based on your situation. Running mantras are easier for me to come up with “just keep running” is one and “almost there is another.”
When working on professional goals, it’s important to come up with meaningful phrases. I like to use phrases like “just keep going” there, but I also find it important to focus on the big picture. “Success is just around the corner” is a good mantra to use or “I’m always moving closer to my goals” is another one.
See things through to the end
I know that it’s easy to get caught up on the latest greatest new thing, but when you start slacking on different goals, it can be hard to get going on all of your goals. Self-esteem starts to suffer when you don’t complete what you started. That’s one of the biggest reasons it’s so important to come up with phrases to help you get through to the end. “Almsot there!”
What mantra do you use when you’re trying to push yourself through/motivate yourself? Share your thoughts in the comments!
