The old adage “slow and steady wins the race” is actually sometimes true. The tortoise in the story of the tortoise and the hare won the race not because he was the smartest, smallest, or even wittiest. Rather, he won the race due to his laser-focus on the end result: the goal line. If you struggle to keep momentum and motivation during your own quest to achieve a goal, you’re not alone! Even though plateaus, setbacks, and relapses are completely normal when it comes to life-changing goals, there are many things you can do to keep the fire inside during the journey. 

Try these strategies to maintain your momentum and motivation:

1. Take action daily. This is the single best step you can take in order to further your momentum. Taking action ensures that you’re making progress, no matter how small. Even if you don’t know exactly what action you’ll be taking, just do something, anything, to further yourself.
   • For example, If you want to lose weight, it’s important to burn more calories than you take in each day. If you want to grow your business, review business growth materials.
2. Find motivational nuggets. Take a few minutes each day to read something inspiring, whether it’s motivational quotes or affirmations to keep your confidence going.
   • Motivational quotes that inspire you can help transcend your mindset away from the daily grind and onto things that are bigger than yourself!
3. Check your progress. If you’re feeling stuck or like you’re not moving forward, review your goal that you’re trying to accomplish. Write down your goals and check in on your progress each day.
   • Think positively about how close you are to the goalpost rather than how far you are from it.
4. Talk to another. Find another person who has already achieved goals similar to the ones you’re working on.
   • If you’re goal is to get physically fit, for example, find a bodybuilder, runner, athlete or other like-minded individual whose been in your shoes.
   • Extract all the wisdom, advice and helpful tidbits that you can from their story.
5. Plan your week. Scheduling time to work on things related to your goals is critical. We use schedules for everything else in our lives, so there’s no reason that time devoted to working on personal goals cannot be included as well.
6. Reward yourself. Small rewards have been shown to motivate everyone from kids to older adults. Rewards act as a positive reinforcement, and even affirmation of a job well done.
   • When we’re being rewarded, we tend to continue pressing on towards our goals.

 These are just a few of the things that we can do on a regular basis to keep motivation and ensure that we’re continually making progress. The key word is “progress.” If we’re taking some action or doing even just one thing on a daily basis that furthers us along in our goals, we’ll feel better about ourselves and be able to keep that momentum. Other things that we can do on a regular basis to keep momentum and motivation alive is to write in a journal, listen to inspiring talks, join a support group related to our goals, spend a few minutes in quiet meditation on our life’s purpose, or even posting daily reminders. The more alive that we can make our goals, the more inspired and motivated we’ll be to take action and achieve them.