Staying Motivated for the Long Run

I know there is probably a large majority of us who have large life goals that we want to achieve. These life goals are not easy to accomplish and take a lot of hard work. Once these goals are accomplished we feel so accomplished (obviously) and proud of ourselves. But sometimes, and maybe even a lot of the time, there are people who do not make their life goals and quit because they couldn't see it to the very end. The life goals that you set for yourself can be accomplished. The determining factor of your success is how you come about your goal. Like I say in a lot of my post, because it is true, I'm still young and have a lot of learning and wisdom to gain. But, at this point of my life I feel like I have learned two important tips in achieving long term goals that I would like to share. 1) Turn your long term goal into short term goals and 2) Give yourself time to acknowledge your success. These two tips are probably two of many steps that need to be done in order to accomplish goals, but I think these two will lead you in the right direction. These are steps that I have been working on myself. So wish me luck and I hope you enjoy these two steps and possibly even put them to work to benefit yourself.

Yours Truly,
Carla Renee

Turn your long term goals into short term goals
-Working towards a long term goal takes a lot of work, dedication, and patience. A lot of the time our efforts feel like they are getting us no where and as a result some people give up on their goals. The best way to keep yourself motivated is to not focus entirely on the long term goal, but to focus on the completion of milestones that get you to your long term goals. Focusing on the big picture is way more overwhelming than looking at the smaller picture. I'm sure most people, including myself, feel motivated to keep pushing forward when they are seeing quick results. Focusing on the big picture will not result in faster results. But, the smaller pictures that construct the bigger picture will.
For example, my long term goal in school is to go to graduate school and become a certified Nurse Midwife. In order to do that I have to do well in my undergraduate studies, get into a nursing school, graduate, work as a registered nurse in the labor and delivery department of a hospital for at least a year, get accepted into a certified Nurse Midwife graduate program, endure 2-3 years of that program and then finally graduate with the proper education and credentials to practice as a Midwife. From all of that, it is going to take about 7 to 8 years of schooling. That means a lot of sleepless nights studying and having to stay consistent with my grades. As of now, I am only in my first year of college and if I constantly focused on becoming a Midwife now it would be far too overwhelming to think about all of the years of stressful studying I would have to do. I'm starting to stress just from thinking about it. So instead, I focus on the first step first: getting into nursing school. Nursing programs are impacted everywhere and competition is tough. So to keep me motivated to continue down the path towards becoming a Midwife I focus on getting into nursing school. I need to keep my grades up for 3 more semester, including the one I'm in now. So right now my only focus is nursing school. Because it's so much closer in the future than becoming a Nurse midwife it doesn't seem as daunting. After getting into nursing school I'll focus on graduating and getting a job as a registered nurse and so on and so forth. Focusing on the increment of the journey instead of the whole picture makes the extra effort less strenuous because you'll see the results of your progress much faster.

Give yourself time to acknowledge your success
-It's easy for us to complete a task and instantly work on the next one and not acknowledge that we have progressed from where we were at the start. Constant work on one really long task can be daunting, repetitive, and discouraging after awhile. To keep yourself encouraged, take a step back every once in awhile and look at how far you have come. From the time you first started working towards the goal to where you currently are. It's further than where you were in the beginning right? Be proud and take pride in that. Accepting and basking in your progress will make the journey a little easier because your progress will be your own motivation. Don't be afraid to take a day off and reset your focus. A trip to the beach, museum, park, garden, cafe, or restaurant you've been wanting to go to maybe? Give yourself a break every now and then. You deserve it.