How to Keep It Going

   How to Keep It Going…………Every year, in January, a lot of people join gyms, start classes, begin courses, only to drop out a couple of weeks or months, later.

In my experience, the main reason for this is that while a worthwhile decision has been made, the reason for it has been overlooked.

WHY would you want to lose weight, get fit, write a book, start a business, do a course, run a marathon, make some change in your life that you think you want?

A lot of people take a good decision, but often for the wrong reason. They join the gym because someone else thinks they need the benefits. Or they start a class because it’ll impress another person. Or because everyone else does it, and so it must be the done thing.

And this is where the reason for taking the decision comes in; if the decision is done for a strong personal reason, the course of action has meaning, purpose, for the participant.

And that’s what gives stability and endurance to the action, a strong personal reason. The strength of the reason need only be strong to the person doing it; that’s his motivation. It doesn’t matter why anyone else would take a similar action.

Here’s a suggestion; get pen and paper, write out 2 reasons why you’d want to start, get to the middle, and complete any course of action you may be considering. Now this may seem a bit simplistic. But here’s the key, as you write one, then two, reasons why you’d want the outcome you’re thinking about, other reasons will come to you. You’ll think about what you do want, and of course what will come up are a couple of things you don’t want. You may find that what you DON’T want to be stronger than what you DO want.

For example a fear of poverty has driven many people, even after they’ve achieved financial success in their lives, to keep achieving more of the same. And of course, sense of achievement and a pride in what they do, may be a driving force too. But the initial motivator would have been so strong that it drove them through all kinds of barriers that you couldn’t possibly imagine at the beginning of the undertaking.

And an awareness of that strong personal reason will embed in your mind. It’ll settle in there like an active conscience, prodding you to do what you know you SHOULD be doing, even when you don’t feel like it.

It becomes a personal motivator, a personal discipline. As you respond to the emotive power of it, you’ll begin to do what‘s necessary on a regular basis, in other words, form a habit.

It’s the habit of doing what needs to be done, day in, day out, relentlessly, persistently, that gets things done. Most people know what they should do. A lot of people even know how to do it, whatever the task may be. Where most of us tend to fall is the doing of it.

Here’s a way. Find YOUR reasons. Write them. To yourself, no one else.

When you feel that you’ve got a reason for which you’d do whatever it takes, learn, memorise the reason, and get started.

Do it now.