Monday Musings: Staying Motivated
It’ll be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog to know that I’m a ‘goals girl.’ I totally believe that in order to accomplish big things you need a plan of attack: A set of goals, and a plan on how to achieve them. After all, it’s been said that a goal without a plan is simply a dream. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. I’d just like my dreams a whole lot more if they were my reality.
When the road is hard, and fraught with rejection, however, the motivation to keep pushing forward can dissipate. Good news or achieving small goals can help, but when your pursuing something so hard to achieve–like a publishing career–it’s hard to not let the demons get to you. So, in preparing my presentation for the next meeting of my RWA chapter on setting and achieving goals, I’ve been looking into how motivation plays into all of that. Some great friends have been feeding me wonderful quotes and videos to use, but this one from the book Eat That Frog that I received yesterday seemed particularity apropos.
“By the yard it’s hard; but inch by inch, anything’s a cinch!”
Sometimes it’s so easy to forget that if you just take baby steps toward any goal, you’ll get there. You just need to keep taking those steps. Being someone who wants to see big results fast, this is something that’s easy for me to lose sight of. I’ll be the first one to come down on myself for not accomplishing enough, when I should be reminding myself that it takes all the pieces to complete the puzzle.
Another little tidbit I’m trying to remember this year is what matters most is how you finish. If we keep working step by step toward the goals we set, in the end we’ll finish strong. Check out this little video below. (And to my chapter mates, yes you’re going to see it again on Saturday.)
