This week I read the article ‘Waiting for the Motivation Fairy’ written by Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardinar.

I talks about the procrastination we all know about, the one more episode of a show or a coffee break that drags into lunch however it also discusses that most procrastination is more subtle and can be mistaken for productive activities. For example you have promised yourself you will go for a walk every morning but on the third morning you get up and decide to put a load of washing on, then you end up emptying the dishwasher and then while the house is quite decide to vacuum and steam the floors. Before you know it you have no time for your walk. You wouldn’t necessary label this as procrastination as you were being productive however it is. The flaw of these tasks are they have not help you achieve that goal of walking every morning. You may even feel guilty or a sense of failure because of it.

The article states that psychology research shows that action leads to motivation, which in turn leads to more action. Ever felt like you want to lose weight but cant seem to find the motivation to start well the research shows that you need to start before you feel ready, then you’ll find more motivation and then you’ll take more action. However as we all know, the article continues to state, that starting before you feel motivated is difficult!! If it was easy we would have all achieved our goals once we had set them. However there are strategies to help assist you get started.

1. Set your goal and break it down to little steps or small achievements.

2. Set a time to achieve all the small steps and therefore the overall goal.

3. Build in an immediate reward for each small step.

For example – you want to loss 20kgs in 12 months. To achieve this you need to achieve a 400grms loss on the scales consistently for the 52 weeks.

Every week you achieve this you buy yourself a coffee and put $20 in a glass Jar visible on display in the kitchen. The immediate reward of a store bought coffee and a long tern reward of $1,040 to spoil yourself when you achieve your overall goal, also on display to remind you of your success.

Here you have your overall goal, have it broken down to steps and when you achieve it you have an immediate reward as well as your long term reward.

So set your goals team! Don’t let the procrastination pixie get in the way, even if he is disguising himself as being productive. Find your motivation fairy and make her your best mate. Go out and kick goals together!