The quarantine is supposedly scheduled to end on May 4th or so, and I haven’t accomplished a single goal yet. I’ve got a lot of goals, in fact, I have too many goals and it’s getting hard to keep track of all of them. And the more goals I add to my list, the less I accomplish. Toward the beginning of the quarantine I laid out some specific ones I’d like to achieve, such as, learning a Super Mario Brothers piano song, finishing my e-book, and uploading 3 tutorial videos on YouTube. These can all be accomplished, but I’m just lacking the motivation. I would much rather be outside in the garden or doing something else. It’s been a big enough challenge just keeping up with this daily blog that I for some reason decided to start.
How do you stay motivated? What’s your secret What do you do when you hit a slump or a plateau? Whether it’s learning music, or writing a book, or doing any other thing, how do you get over the drag and make yourself do it? I looked up a couple of websites that give some tips about motivation and this is the advice I’ve read:
1.) Have a clearly defined, manageable goal. It needs to be doable, too. Well, I did that already. I know I can do all 3 items on my list, but it’s going to be hard.
2.) Next, take that goal and break it down into smaller parts. Doing a little bit every day will make the overall task less daunting. For instance, I really want to learn this very difficult piano song, but that’s not going to happen without regular practice. I’m going to get specific and set a new daily goal to ensure I practice. I’ll start a timer for at least 30 minutes a day until I’ve got the song down. If I can stick to my timer and not give up halfway through I should have this song accomplished by the end of the quarantine.
The same goes for my e-book. I’ve got 3 chapters left. I’m going to try to finalize one chapter a day until the entire thing is finished. After that, I’ll edit it, and have the draft reviewed before I proceed with the publishing process. I’ve never published a book before, so I don’t know how difficult it is. Therefore, I will need to do a lot of research. This is a big goal of mine, and it’s going to take some time. I hope I get it done before the quarantine is over.
Finally, I want to make tutorial videos on YouTube about converting a vehicle into a motor home and various upcycling projects. Video editing looks like long, tedious work, and I’m not very familiar with the different types of software. I’ve played around with iMovie, LightWorks, and Shotcut, but all of these were difficult for me to grasp. I imagine if I just practice enough I’ll get the hang of it, but sometimes I think it would just be easier to pay someone to do all the video editing for me. Be that as it may, I’m going to stick to the plan, and try to have three videos uploaded before the quarantine ends.
3.) Make your goal public. I did this one, too. Having an accountability buddy also helps. I’ve thought about maybe asking friends to hold me accountable to some of my other goals, but my pride and the fear of failure is generally sufficient to hold me accountable for things like that.
Did you set any quarantine goals?
And if so, do you think you’ll accomplish them?
https://au.reachout.com/articles/tips-for-getting-and-staying-motivated