Good morning to all!
I hope you are enjoying the first few days of Spring, boy it is nice to see the warm weather again! Let’s hope it stays this beautiful…
As we venture through our daily lives and our new monthly resolutions I think we all, as humans, see one major trend. This trend we see is high peaked aspirations at the start, the peaks of which we just barely manage to reach, before we topple once again into a downward spiral. Take for example the one who says they will start a diet, or another, they will start classes next Fall, the list goes on…. We all have this problem of procrastination and putting things off, and it is not so much the problem of ‘lack of motivation’, but instead it is a lack of follow-through.
Follow-through…
What is it? No I am not talking about the movement in sports! It is simply the following through of ones decision to perform a task one knowingly and willingly decides with their own free will to do. The examples I gave above of the person who is motivated to work out etc., they obviously have a reason for doing it, with a goal in mind, and with both of these factors comes motivation. So, motivation is not the problem, but follow-through.
Follow-through is something practical and in a way you could say almost natural. Motivation is in the mind telling us we want to reach that goal, but in the very moment. In an article by Paul B. in Forbes Magazine he says the following : “Each attempt to “motivate” himself will only increase his stress and guilt as it widens the gap between his motivation and his follow-through, between how badly he wants to work out and his failure to do so….” We have a misconception that if we only cared enough about something we would do something about it, but that is not necessarily true.
Follow-through is practical, it is “in the practice”. If we want to be able to say we followed through 110 percent with something we need to : STOP THINKING. Make a decision about something and don’t let your mind tell you otherwise. “I will wake up at 7am to go sign up for classes”, when that alarm goes off don’t let your brain trick you into the value of more sleep, or that the office will be open tomorrow: GET UP!
Like always, it seems so simple in words and perspective, but the reality is that we all struggle with follow-through. The best way to accomplish the act is to take baby steps, start by doing it from day to day, or heck even hour to hour. We all set out and create great goals, but following through with them is the part we neglect. Take any successful person out there, they all FOLLOWED THROUGH to their goal in order to reach that success.
So let’s make a plan, and in that plan incorporate how we are to achieve our goal, by following through. Don’t overthink in the moment, but remember that when you set your goal it was with an END in mind, and now all that matters is following through with it.
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