Maintaining Motivation – Realistic Goals

REALISTIC GOALS

We’ve all done it. We’ve all tried to convince ourselves that we can achieve more than we ever have before, that ‘this time it’s going to be different’, ‘this time I’ll keep going until it’s all done’.

Then reality hits and we discover we don’t get as much done. We feel overwhelmed because the goal we set seems to be moving further and further away each week. We don’t achieve our end of term goal. Our Clutter Free Goal seems further away, we feel stuck on the climb or decent of a step, and we’re less motivated to make and protect our time to ‘do the doing’.

We had such high hopes and expectations that this time it was going to be different. The truth is, the reason why this happens is because we didn’t set realistic goals in the first place. In fact, quite often, we just wish rather than actually set a goal.

The key difference between a goal and a wish is a commitment to achieving it by putting in regular time, energy and effort. We may not always succeed in achieving our goals, but what matters is that we’ve done our best to achieve them by putting in regular time, energy and effort working towards them.

To make sure we don’t give up putting regular time, energy and effort into achieving our Clutter Free Goal, we need to make sure we’re setting ourselves REALISTIC goals in the first place. The perfectionist inside every Clutter Clearer means that when we start our Journey, we almost certainly over-estimate what we can achieve in a week or a term, and if we’re not careful, that will cause us to give up (again).

Even if we decide that we’re going to commit time, energy and effort to working on our Clutter, we can still struggle to succeed if our goal isn’t REALISTIC.

A realistic goal needs to be one that is a comfortable step for YOU outside your Comfort Zone into the Learning and Change Zone, not one that sends you close to the Panic Zone. Everyone’s threshold between the Learning and Change Zone and Panic Zone will be different. For some it will be lower than others. A realistic goal is one that you believe you can accomplish, and it is more likely that you will set a realistic goal if you have the help of someone who has already achieved what you want to achieve i.e. other Journey Members further ahead on their Journey.

When we start following our Journey, we HAVE to break down our Clutter Free Goal into smaller, more manageable, bitesize goals

e.g.

• Weekly Goal
• End of Term Goal
• Peak Goal
• End of Step Goal

We need to make sure we review our goals regularly and accept the learning and feedback of the facts so that we can make sure our goals are – and remain – realistic. It’s the acceptance of the learning, feedback and facts that can be the hardest part of making sure we set realistic goals.

You can clear your clutter fast, or you can clear your clutter forever, but you can’t clear your clutter forever, fast.

To find out how Clare can help you clear your clutter Forever, without the need for an expensive home visit, click here now: https://www.clutterclearing.net/clares-help-centre/