Setting out on a quest is exciting.
Going after your dreams and turning them into goals is often a marathon, not a sprint.
The vision of slaying dragons and bathing in a pile of gold may seem enticing, but being alone in dark woods on the road to leads there is often not.
When you’re in the planning stages, sitting on a comfy sofa, you may not fully appreciate the actual difficulty ahead. And that is often a good thing!
If all you thought of were the struggle, you’d never set foot outside.
Still, the map (happy planning) is not the territory (the doing).
The big, dark forest of mundane struggle.
When you’re in the middle of work, when the going gets tough, you may sometimes (often) wonder why you’re doing it in the first place. OR you may not even wonder about that but simply focus on feeling discouraged and unmotivated.
The excitement is long gone, and the work ahead of you isn’t getting any easier.
If anything, it feels even more confusing and demanding.
There’s little or no feedback to tell you whether you’re moving in the right direction. There’s no reception to check the GPS.
You start second-guessing your choices and often think of quitting.
Check your inner compass.
First of all, it’s perfectly normal to feel that way. No one is immune to bouts of lower motivation.
Almost everyone has periods of doubt and faces obstacles along the way.
Losing motivation doesn’t also mean that you picked the wrong goal and that you should quit, although many do just that.
Ground control to Major Tom.
But what you do need to do in this situation is simply to reconnect with your vision.
Build regular realignment & reconnection sessions into your schedule.
I believe once a week is an excellent place to start.
It doesn’t have to take long – 10 or 20 minutes is often enough.
Simply ask yourself a couple of questions to get to the source of your motivation:
- Why am I striving for this goal?
- What are my key goals in life, and how are they aligned with my actions?
- Why am I doing what I’m doing?
- What am I trying to achieve?
- What inspired and motivated me to set this goal?
Dust your mental shelves to reconnect with the vision that inspired you.
Long-term goal pursuit is more like a marriage than a one-night stand; for better or for worse.
It takes commitment.
When all you see is a dark, dense forest, you need to calm down, take a step back and reconnect with your vision.
