Power up Your Goals: 9 Ways to Get Inspired and Stay Motivated! | By Wendy Buckingham

Coach Pointing Excited Reading a book on red background

The article below is from Wendy's great book "Be Your Own Goals Coach" - book details can be found at the end of this article.

Setting your goals and planning how you're going to achieve them is often the easy part, even if they are SMART and authentic. It's keeping the momentum going and handling the "stuff" that comes up along the way that can have you losing the plot and feeling like giving up.

Inspiration and motivation are the pistons that drive your goals. Wendy Buckingham

Inspiration gets you going and fires you up in the first place. Motivation is what you need a continual supply of to make it all happen.

Here are 9 strategies that will keep you inspired and fuel your motivation when it all feels too hard

1. Visualise your goal

Spend a few minutes a day with your eyes shut, visualising your goal and experiencing it with your senses.

See, hear, smell and feel how it will be. Feel the achievement of that business success or career position: the elation, joy, triumph and perhaps relief of getting your first clients. See the physical manifestation of the goal: the book you have written being positively reviewed, your calendar full of upcoming coaching sessions. Imagine driving the new car, decorating the house, business or first-class travel, money in the bank, the article in the paper. Hear the accolades to your success: the applause, the compliments, the speech.

This makes it very real and exciting and will inspire and motivate you to keep going.

2. Keep your goals visible

Write up your goals in big letters and put them where you will see them often - on the fridge, your wardrobe door, the dashboard of your car.

Of course, you may need the co-operation and indulgence of whoever you live with for this. You could even hang them in the shower - although you may need to get them laminated as soggy goals will soon disintegrate and disappear down the drain! Each morning you can check them over, sing them out and get motivated to do what needs doing today to move your forward.

Put your goals wherever you can't avoid looking often. This guarantees several minutes of goal reinforcement each day!

3. Create a treasure map

Create a collage of pictures of all the things achieving your goal will bring you, and can be a lot of fun to make.

Search around magazines to get just the right pictures to inspire and motivate you. Your ideal car in just the colour you want and with personalised plates; $'s on your bank statement; your dream home; the Cartier watch; an exotic holiday destination; a size 12 dress you want to buy. Choose whatever success looks like to you.

Paste all your pictures onto a sheet of coloured cardboard and add any comments or dates. If you are an artistic type, put in some extra decoration. Hang your treasure map somewhere you will see it often.

4. Subscribe to inspirational podcasts

Choose podcasts that relate to your goals and play them to uplift your energy reinforce your intentions.

Listening to success and motivational audio in your car or when you're out walking is a great way to stay inspired and keep going.

5. Get support from a mentor

Find a mentor who has already achieved your goal/s or has lots of relevant knowledge and experience and can help you navigate the best path to success.

A mentor can be your greatest resource. They've been where you want to go and experienced the hurdles along the way. As a new coach it's particularly useful to find a good mentor to guide you through those early coaching sessions - and building up your practice. You may be able to find a mentor to work with you for free, but if you have pay see it as an investment in achieving your goals.

6. Take a break

It's amazing how the simple act of getting out of your working environment for a while can reinvigorate your motivation.

Go for a walk for half an hour. As your body moves it will stimulate your energy and motivation will start to flow again. Sit in the park; have a coffee. A home office, in particular, can become quite claustrophobic. Adopt a favourite coffee shop or your library as your 'other office'. Use it as somewhere stimulating to plan or consolidate your ideas away from your desk and with the energy of other people around you.

7. Remember to keep acknowledging and celebrating each and every step along the way

When you're feeling bogged down, as if you've made no progress, look back to when you first started the journey towards your goal and acknowledge how far you have actually come.

The soul craves acknowledgement, so take this moment to re-inspire and re-motivate you to get going again.

8. Ask yourself

Often spotting what went wrong and realizing it was not true, just somebody else's stuff, is enough to get you back on track.

Try asking yourself:

  • When was I last feeling inspired and motivated?
  • Did something happen to deflate my enthusiasm?
  • Did someone say something negative and invalidate my goal that had me doubting or second-guessing whether I was on the right path?

9. Revisit your WHYs and WHATs

Getting back in touch with the reasons you want this goal can be a great motivator when your energy flags.

Ask yourself these questions to revisit your why and what:

  • Why do you want this goal?
  • What will you have proved to yourself and others?
  • What will the benefits be?
  • What will you have?

Wrap-up

These nine tips should help you get going - and back on track. If they don't do the trick it could be time to take another look at your goal. Is this something you still want to achieve? Has it become a 'should' or an 'ought to'? Perhaps it's something that's not really authentic for you?

If this happens, be willing to let the goal go - and see that as an achievement. Sometimes we have to start down a path before we realise it's not really where we want to go.

Mastering the Art of Goals Coaching

Book Details:

The latest in Wendy's Life Coaching Professionally Success Series of eBooks is Mastering the Art of Goals Coaching.

In this eBook Wendy demonstrates the essential skills of setting, planning and achieving goals for coaches of all specialties to use with clients, supported with case studies and processes.

Note: You may also recognize Wendy as an invaluable Moderator in our Facebook Group Coaches Helping Coaches!

Did you like this article on motivation and goal-setting? You may also like:

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Contributing Author:

Wendy Buckingham is a certified life coach with over 20 years' experience. She now supports new and experienced coaches through her website Life Coaching Professionally. Wendy also offers a free subscription to her regular Life Coaching Accelerators of insider tips to enhance your coaching skills and grow your practice.

Over the last 10 years Life Coaching Professionally has evolved into a valued, independent and free resource for coaches and become Wendy's life’s work and legacy.

Wendy’s Life Coaching Successfully Series of books is also an evolving expression of her work, passing on information and skills for successful coaching in a compact and user-friendly format. You can find details of the books here for the best bundle price deals, and also on Amazon.

Learn more about Wendy & see all their articles here >>

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