Setting yourself goals might pertain to aspects of your life that you need to take care of, such as learning to drive and finding a new job, but it might also be about personal growth and development. You might not feel quite the same driving force to start exercising more or writing a book of your own, but there is pride that can come from striving to meet your own personal ambitions.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to feel that pride until at least some of the progress has been made, making it often difficult to motivate yourself to get started. Learning what rhythm works for you can help you to develop a routine that trims away the hesitation to get going.
Reward Systems
The most straightforward way to begin when it comes to motivation is to combine something you know you need to do (but don’t particularly want to do) – let’s say, exercise – with an activity that you want to be enjoying, like watching Netflix, playing video games, or enjoying gambling classics during your downtime, like those available in Unibet’s online casino in the US.
Set yourself an amount of time when you’re going to do exercise – say, half an hour, for example – and make sure that you stick to it, completing the workout routine in that 30 minutes time slot you’ve allocated yourself. Then, allow yourself to follow that up afterwards with some time to relax with your chosen pastime, like enjoying a few rounds of slots, roulette, or a game of video poker, or else an episode of your favorite show or an hour on your preferred video game. Ultimately, this reward system lets you appreciate the reward all the more when you feel you’ve earned it.
The trick is doing enough exercise (or whatever undesirable activity pertains to your goal – it could be a work assignment or a chore at home instead, for instance) to warrant the relaxation or entertainment you want. You don’t want it to feel as if you’ve tricked yourself out of exercise or whatever the task at hand is; it would miss the point entirely.
A Shift in Perspective
Perhaps your vow to undertake these personal goals should be marked with a shift in perspective – one where you aim to alter what you perceive as a valuable and worthwhile use of your free time. It’s always easier and more immediately tempting to simply put yourself in front of the TV for a session of movie or show binge-watching, but understanding the kind of long-term appreciation and pride that can come with doing something more personally rewarding might help you to view it in a more enjoyable light.
Of course, this won’t happen overnight, and in the case of some things, like working out, this might not be a valid substitute for relaxation. However, something like writing a book or doing art certainly can – the latter of which can be used as a form of therapy as well as a way to derive enjoyment and improve your creativity.
A Varied Schedule
Furthermore, you don’t have to commit so totally to one activity taking up the bulk of your free time. Giving yourself a more varied schedule, wherein you engage with this new, productive, goal-oriented hobby and your older, more traditionally relaxing interests, can lend each segment an air of novelty that keeps them feeling fresh. This also allows you time to go and see people socially or local sites that you’ve been meaning to.
Techniques such as this can also go a long way to maximizing your free time, making your weekends, days off, and evenings feel longer. Although, forcing yourself to do as much as possible every time you have a day off could quickly get tiring, and sometimes, there is value in recognizing the benefits of doing nothing at all.
