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Ways To Improve: Goal Setting and Motivation - by Ka'Deem WynnPublished by
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!” - Sylvester Stallone a.k.a. Rocky Balboa
Even though that was just a heartfelt moment in a movie, what was said was true. If you want something, you have to go after it. If you mess up, get up and keep going. Take responsibility and never give up. It’s always easier said than done, and even harder when it’s you trying to motivate yourself. So how do you get the nerve to get up off the couch and get out and do something? To start, you need to set some goals.
Goal Setting
Goals are also beneficial because they reflect improvement. Too often people make short-term comparisons regarding their strength, fitness, flexibility, or weight. Because the positive effects of exercise take time to emerge, improvements being made are often not noticed when people use a short timeframe for comparison. If a goal is achieved, evidence of improvement exists. Goal setting involves a number of steps:
If a target date is not set, the goal is really just a dream. For this idea to be a goal, the individual needs to set a specific date by which to achieve the behavior. Goal setting usually involves both long-term and short-term goals. The long-term goals provide direction; the short-term goals provide the increase in intensity and effort. Achieving short-term goals along the way to the long-term goal boosts confidence and motivation because it is obvious that the effort is worthwhile because improvement is being made. Target dates are set for each short-term goal in a progressive order until the long-term goal is achieved. This pattern of goal setting can be considered as a staircase, where each short-term goal is a step on the way to the long-term goal.
Motivation
Motivation is defined as “the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.”
Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain
knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does something. Anyone who has ever had a goal (like wanting to lose ten pounds or wanting to run a marathon) probably immediately realizes that simply having the desire to accomplish something is not enough.
Achieving such a goal requires the ability to persist through obstacles and endurance to keep going in spite of difficulties.
There are three major components to motivation: Activation, Persistence, and Intensity.
Activation
Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as enrolling in a psychology class, or joining your school’s sports team.
Woody Allen once said “80% of success is showing up”. Sometimes thinking of that initial physical movement where you have to get off the couch and into the car can at times be more strenuous and stress provoking than the actual tough exercise you do. You just have get there; everything will be fine and even enjoyable once you get into it.
In short, motivation starts when you actually take action, and make your thoughts manifest. The next step is to keep the wheels turning.
Persistence
Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist, such as taking more psychology courses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment of time, energy, and resources.
In a moment when you feel really motivated, you feel like you can take on the world. You really just want to get into things, start your blog or start your workout program or whatever it may be. However, this initial feeling probably won’t last more than 24 hours. That’s why the second component of motivation is so important. Persistence means that you need to keep working just as hard after those initial butterfly feelings dilute.
Persistence then is about continuing down the path of success when things get stale, get boring, get uncomfortable, get hard, or there is a difficult obstacle to overcome.
People often err by setting only long-term goals. They begin to work toward achieving the goal, but success seems so far away that they give up before they get there. If someone had decided to ride a bike for 1 hour and was currently having trouble lasting 10 minutes, 1 hour would seem virtually impossible.
Intensity
Finally, intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal.  For example, one student might coast by without much effort, while another student will study regularly, participate in discussions and take advantage of research opportunities outside of class. It’s about doing the small things at this point, and sticking with it.
Don’t let that be you! When it gets hard, keep going! You’ll never see the results if you pick and choose when you “feel” like it.
Motivate Others
We all need someone to help motivate us. It’s never easy to do with a group - let alone by yourself.
So start somewhere, even if it begins with yourself. If you feel like you can’t do it, ask someone to begin motivating you. After that, you’ll want to help motivate someone. When you do, it ultimately changes their life in some way.
Most of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were when they gave up.
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You may not realize it, but by inspiring and motivating someone, you do something in them that is unexplainable. We all want to be inspired and motivated by others, but it really start when we give to others. In turn, you will be motivated. Even the most motivated people had to be motivated as some point. And even today as they motivate others, they still get motivated. It’s really a cycle that helps stimulate others, and allows us to become better everyday.
