The right balance – that is what you need, and most of the time, its not that hard to find it. Just look in the right direction!! Here are some tips to help you with that:
- “DON’T TELL ME SKY’S THE LIMIT, WHEN THERE ARE FOOTSTEPS ON THE MOON”
Set yourself a goal, and don’t just stop there, ask yourself these questions:
- Why is this my goal?
- What makes this goal different from my other aspirations?
- Why is it so important for me to achieve this?
- What will happen to me as a person if I achieve this goal?
- How important is this goal for me and my future? (5 days, 5 months, 5 years)
- Is this goal worth giving up my time and effort? (Remember: A dream doesn’t become reality through magic, it requires hard work, determination and sweat.)
- “SMALL PLANS, BIG RESULTS – the shorter it is, the better the result will be.”
Now, take note of the basic steps you need to go through to achieve this, don’t spend too much time on this, just a basic rough guide, so that you don’t get lost among the infinite methods available to us these days.
Now days, there are many ways to get to a goal, so choose yours and stick to it, don’t wound yourself up with the small details at this stage, leave enough room for errors, repeats and improvisation. It’s important to note a few thins though:
- Will this path take me to my goal as the destination?
- Are there things which I must start now, to be prepared when the time come? (Skills to be mastered, portfolio work)
- Is this a long method that will require a lot of patience and time or more of an instant method? (Some people find themselves stranded midway in their dreams because they underestimated the amount of time it would require achieving that goal)
- Does this plan leave room for improvement/change etc? Remember a plan is not a clamp that puts you in a fixed place, its more of a rope with enough length that tugs you back into action when you stray too far from the plan.
- “THE DIFFERENECE BETWEEN A DREAM AND A GOAL IS A DEADLINE.”
Set yourself a deadline, one that’s realistic and achievable, it may be a negative inspiration but it’s better than no inspiration at all. They make you creative. Remember, they can be scary but good.
- “DONT WAIT – the time will never be just right.”
And now the most important part of all time, and usually the hardest for most people, get into action. Work for it, be it practice, study, or go, do whatever needs to be done. While working you are going to face many challenges, in the form of distractions, going outside your comfort zone, risky factors, new changes and much more.
Yet growth must be chosen again and again. It is your choice if you want to go forward towards growth or back into your safety. You may fail and must repeat steps and that’s okay, those failures are what makes you resilient and strong towards such failures in the future. Count them as opportunities to grow and conquer.
Here are some tips that helped me to keep working even when I was at the lowest:
- Tackle your challenges, whatever they maybe before lunch.
You may say, ‘Oh I still work perfectly after lunch’ or ‘I feel fully energised after having a hearty meal for lunch.’ Let’s stop fooling ourselves now. Most of our activities scheduled for after lunch tends to get put off or done with half interest. So, end that procrastination and just get a start on it before lunch. Trust me, ever since that motto entered my life, I got a lot more work done.
- Learn to continue, stop restarting.
We all tend to start over once something goes wrong, stop that!! Learn to own up to mistakes and take it from there. Maybe it’s easy to delete a file or rip a page up and start over, but it won’t be that easy with everything else in life. So, learn to take it from where you messed up, because you will fill find yourself spending a lot more time on doing the same work again and again without making progress, if you continue to restart every single time when an error occurs.
- Avoid everyday self-evaluation.
They say patience is a virtue and I totally believe it. As a person who has very little patience and tend to overthink a lot, I find myself recheck whether the ‘goal has happened’, which hardly ever has, making my ‘checking’ result in me feeling demotivated and futile. This ‘rechecking’ will never do us good, just trust yourself, and give it time. Make sure you give yourself time for your work to show yields.
I am not saying evaluation isn’t important. It totally is, but it should take place to motivate you and help you see your mistakes, so you won’t make them in future and help you see what areas you should focus more, not make you feel even worse about yourself and give up on your goals.
- Be the energy you want to attract.
If you wish to be happy, what stopping you?? Nothing!! Exactly. So if you desire some motivation or relaxing moments, give it to yourself! Don’t expect someone to serve it to you in a platter!!
- Work harder than you think you did yesterday.
Remember work only pays off when its consistent no matter how small it is, so if you decide to not work for because you worked hard yesterday, then you are destroying all that work for nothing. Breaks are required and necessary, but breaks due to demotivation or laziness can be dangerous as they tend to get longer and longer as time goes on.
- Either work or don’t work, no in-between.
When having a break, take a break fully. Press that off-switch and relax. When working, have that cup of tea/coffee or water beside you and work at full power. Don’t try to pull off all that ‘relax and work/multi-task nonsense’. Multi-task means when you are focusing on two things at once but at full productivity and is ok if you can’t do it, because not everyone can. Multitask is not eating my lunch and watching a lecture, because then no matter how much you try, you are trying to relax and work at the same time, and that is off no use, because your brain doesn’t get to work or relax, so what’s the point? Also don’t work in bed, because work causes stress and stress is only for the desk as bed is for rest.