5 Motivational Tips For Self Improvement

If you want to enjoy a successful and satisfying life, you will need to continually improve yourself.

However, it can often be difficult to find the motivation required to spend time enhancing your fitness, knowledge, and relationships.

This article will help by providing some simple tips that will give you additional motivation for self improvement.

Let’s check them out!

Choose S.M.A.R.T Goals

Before embarking on your self improvement journey, it is important to set some goals.

By defining S.M.A.R.T goals, you will find it much easier to remain motivated.  S.M.A.R.T goals are:

Specific

Define want to achieve in very clear terms.

Instead of having “get fitter” as a goal, it should be “Perform 4 x 60 minute sessions at the gym each week for the next 6 months”.

Your goals should include terms that define “where”, “how”, “when”, with whom” the goal will be completed.

Measurable

There must be a way to measure when you have successfully reached your goal.

With the “attending the gym” goal mentioned above, it is measurable because you can record your start date and how many workouts you perform each week.

Attainable

Your goals must be realistic.

A goal like “Get a body like Hugh Jackman” might not be attainable as it would require you to spend 3 hours in the gym every day.

If you have work and family commitments, you will never find the time to reach that goal.

Relevant

Is the goal you are choosing relevant to your life?

Why are you setting this particular goal?

Is it an important goal that is worth the time it will take?

Timely

All goals must run according to a timeline.

Make sure you have enough time to achieve the goals you are considering and always set an “end date” when you can evaluate the status of each goal.

Learn more about S.M.A.R.T goals here.

Monitor your progress closely

Now that you have identified some S.M.A.R.T goals, you can begin to work towards them.

One of the best ways to remain motivated as you attempt to reach a goal is to track your progress with charts.

You can use a calendar to mark off the days where you achieved a task that is associated with a goal.

There are also software programs designed to help you set and track the goals you are attempting to reach.

Having a record of how well you have been working towards your goals will substantially improve your motivation levels.

It will also cause a “snowball” effect as your daily successes build to become long term successes.

Communicate with other people on the same journey

You will be much more likely to continue with your journey of self improvement if you are interacting with other people on a similar journey.

They will provide you with encouragement, advice, and friendship as you push towards your self improvement goals.

If your goals relate to fitness, find other people with similar goals and exercise together.

If you want to practice yoga more often, start a class with a couple of friends who are also interested in yoga.

You will be much more likely to remain motivated and to form healthy habits if you have friends or family members with similar goals.

There are also many useful online communities of like-minded people with similar goals.

These communities include web forums, Reddit groups, and social media groups.

You will be surprised by how much motivation you can obtain by participating in these groups.

Use images that embody success

Find images that represent success and place them in prominent locations like your desk, refrigerator, and computer desktop.

If your goal is to lose weight, use a picture of yourself when you were slimmer or of people who are fit and healthy.

Having these images available will keep you motivated and reduce the risk of negative behaviours which prevent you from reaching your goals.

Set mini goals and rewards

Your journey of self improvement should never end.

There will always have some aspect of your life that you want to improve, be it your health, relationships, education, or career.

You will find that many of your long term self improvement goals will take many years to achieve.

One very useful technique for achieving these long-term goals is to break them up into smaller chunks and to use rewards.

For example, if you wanted to lose 50 pounds, you could set five goals, with each goal being to lose 10 pounds.

Once you lose 10 pounds, you can reward yourself with a gift of some kind, like a new piece of clothing or a weekend away.

You can make each reward increasingly valuable, to help you remain motivated.

However, make sure your rewards don’t interfere with your goals (eating a huge chocolate sundae would be a terrible “reward” if you are trying to lose weight).

I hope you enjoyed reading 5 Motivational Tips For Self Improvement.

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