Woods are lovely, dark & deep
But i have promises to keep
And miles to go before i sleep
And miles to go before i sleep
by Robert Frost….
Well, you must be wondering what these lines actually mean. However, you must must have had an idea by going through these lines, that they somehow convey something motivational. Something that is inspiring and self-realizing. Well, yes you are right having guessed that.
These lines written by Robert Frost, a famous poet who always wrote something that just touched our hearts from within and inspired us to simply win over the world!
How magical his words are, no wonder how magical he himself would have been!
This particular poem of his is even more wonderful than any other. The way he has said that there may be a number of fancies, attractions and beauties in his way, but there are a certain promises he has to fulfill, and a lot to do and keep doing before he ultimately stops and rests! How motivating it feels every time while going through these lines.
It happens very often with us, that every time when we sit back to do some self-evaluation, we find so many faults and flaws within us that we feel disappointed with ourselves and go all demotivated. Then we try to revive, and motivate ourselves by setting some future goals and targets and wish to fulfill them from then onwards. But what after that? Do we really succeed in achieving them at all? Well, sometimes yes, and most of the times ‘NO’. But why? Probably because in order to convince ourselves and bring ourselves out of that disappointment, we tend to set such futuristic goals that are unreal, far more unachievable and way too difficult to abide by. So, what to do then? What’s the solution to it? A feasible one?
There are a few ways with which you can try to set achievable goals and then also succeed in achieving them.
HOW TO SET ACHIEVABLE GOALS? :
Set targets that are way below your actual capacity:
Let’s just take an example here, suppose you want to loose 10 kg of weight. Then do not presume that you will exercise for an hour daily and have fruits in place of any one meal of the day. Instead, plan to exercise half hour a day, that too with a day’s off in a week and to have a fruit in between meals replacing your mid time snacks.
Remember your inspiration and start over:
Suppose you are highly inspired by one of your uncle or your teacher, then close your eyes, think of that person and just say to them that hey, i am doing it for you! Well, it might sound stupid but it will surely work when at times you will feel like quitting.
Grant some flexibility to yourself:
We are humans, not machines. And we can only try our best to do things. But sometimes, we expect way too much out of ourselves. Suppose, you have set a diet regime in which you have set the target of not consuming junk food for more than a day in a month. Here, along with setting this target, give some flexibility to yourself by presuming that it can be one to two in a month. And just don’t feel guilty about it if it happens! Remember, this much flexibility is justified, but more than this will itself make you feel guilty because you already gave that liberty to yourself and so you will automatically tend to control yourself.
Set Short term goals instead of long term:
Set goals that are to be completed in short spans of time. For example- instead of setting a target to loose 5 kgs in 5 months, set a target initially, to loose 1 kg in one month and then set another target to loose another 1 kg in the next one month and so on.
Give an alternate to yourself, when if you fail to achieve the goals:
Once you have set the goals and have started working upon them, just keep a plan B at the back of your mind. Keep an alternate so as to what will you do if you initially fail to achieve your goal. For example, you have set a goal to loose one kg in one month. Along with this, set an alternate goal that if you fail to do so in one month, you will do it in the next fifteen days after the scheduled month. This will enable you to feel even more geared up to complete your target in the next fifteen days.
HOW TO SET THOSE ACHIEVABLE GOALS? :
Reward yourself with something, every time you achieve a short term target:
Set a reward for yourself for example- promise to yourself that you will go to a wild road trip once you are finished with a target. Or promise anything else that you like the most and have been wanting to do for a long time now. This will motivate you even more to achieve your goals.
Re-energize yourself:
Whenever you feel like you are lacking that spirit in you which was there when you started off, just re-energize yourself. For example, if you have just started feeling that no, you can’t g on to strive more and exercise more to go all that fitter, then just see a celebrity’s photograph whom you like the most or who is the most fittest and beautiful/handsome according to you and just refresh yourself by keeping in mind that you can also be like that one day.
Keep a partner to check over you:
Tell one of your friend, your family member etc to keep a track of how you are moving towards achieving your target. Tell him/her to constantly keep asking you about how you are doing and what problems are you facing.
Keep a partner to compete with you:
This is the most effective way of catalyzing your speed and efforts in achieving a goal. Have a competition sort of thing with someone and compete with him in achieving the same target. This will arise a competitive spirit in you and you will thrive to do better than your competitor just to win the challenge. Then it does not matter even if you get nothing out of it apart from the pleasure of winning.
Last but not the least,always remember that What you do defines you, and what you does not doesn’t! So try your 100%, but never go demotivated having failed. Just keep trying always!