It is always a good idea to write down your goals, short term and ultimate goals (and make sure they are SMART), so that you know what you are aiming for. But even better? Finding a way to visually motivate yourself to get to them. This helps you check it off daily or weekly and you can reevaluate what you did and help yourself improve to keep you moving toward the goal.
When I set my goal of losing the rest of my pregnancy weight, I saw a visual motivation pin on Pinterest that really caught my attention. I loved the idea of seeing the pounds lost and pounds to-go in jars using marbles. So I quickly looked around my house, found some marbles in an game we never play and 2 old plastic prenatal vitamin jars that were bound for recycling and cleaned them up.
I decided to start off by putting just enough marbles in the pounds to-go jar to get to my pregnancy weight and I also added the weight in the pounds lost jar that I had lost when training for my second 1/2 marathon (8lbs) cause I had started tracking my weight then and I earned those marbles! So I had 10 to go.
Now, where to put them? I wanted to put them where I could see them every day so it would motivate me and out where my husband could keep me accountable. I have a problem with eating while I'm bored and, out of habit, I head straight to the pantry to graze. So that's where I put them. Right where the snack food use to be. (I also got rid of the snack food!)
Every Monday, I'd weigh myself and move marbles from the to-go jar to the lost jar. Some weeks I'd move 1 or 2 and some weeks I wouldn't move any. I never moved marbles from the lost back to the to-go jar. I wanted to keep myself moving forward and not discourage myself if I had gained a pound back that week. I just had to work harder the next week.
I had an idea of my ultimate goal weight being 140, so I just kept adding 10 more marbles into the to-go jar until I got to 140. Once I got there, I added 5 marbles because I didn't know how much more I would lose.
I have gotten down to 130 and I think it's time to retire the jars. They helped me focus on where I wanted to be and kept me motivated because I saw them all the time. I earned all of those marbles in the jar and am proud of every single one!
So what's next? I constantly have goals that I'm trying to achieve. I'm not perfect and I am always pushing myself.
In my current challenge group, I asked the challengers to set 3 goals and I did this myself too. I also asked them this week to create a visual motivation for one of their goals and, again, I did this as well.
Something I've struggled with lately is drinking the recommended amount of water throughout the day. I have tried a few different techniques, but I could never make it last. So, I thought this would be perfect for my visual motivation! So here is what I came up with.
For everyday I drink eight cups of water, I'm giving myself a dollar. Since I don't keep $1 bills in my house it'll just be a total on the side. I'd love to buy some new jeans from A&F or Hollister and figured this would be my motivation to do just that! The clothespins on top will help me tally the cups daily. The board is on top of my fridge for me to see from just about anywhere.
When I set my goal of losing the rest of my pregnancy weight, I saw a visual motivation pin on Pinterest that really caught my attention. I loved the idea of seeing the pounds lost and pounds to-go in jars using marbles. So I quickly looked around my house, found some marbles in an game we never play and 2 old plastic prenatal vitamin jars that were bound for recycling and cleaned them up.
I decided to start off by putting just enough marbles in the pounds to-go jar to get to my pregnancy weight and I also added the weight in the pounds lost jar that I had lost when training for my second 1/2 marathon (8lbs) cause I had started tracking my weight then and I earned those marbles! So I had 10 to go.
Now, where to put them? I wanted to put them where I could see them every day so it would motivate me and out where my husband could keep me accountable. I have a problem with eating while I'm bored and, out of habit, I head straight to the pantry to graze. So that's where I put them. Right where the snack food use to be. (I also got rid of the snack food!)
Every Monday, I'd weigh myself and move marbles from the to-go jar to the lost jar. Some weeks I'd move 1 or 2 and some weeks I wouldn't move any. I never moved marbles from the lost back to the to-go jar. I wanted to keep myself moving forward and not discourage myself if I had gained a pound back that week. I just had to work harder the next week.
I had an idea of my ultimate goal weight being 140, so I just kept adding 10 more marbles into the to-go jar until I got to 140. Once I got there, I added 5 marbles because I didn't know how much more I would lose.
I have gotten down to 130 and I think it's time to retire the jars. They helped me focus on where I wanted to be and kept me motivated because I saw them all the time. I earned all of those marbles in the jar and am proud of every single one!
So what's next? I constantly have goals that I'm trying to achieve. I'm not perfect and I am always pushing myself.
In my current challenge group, I asked the challengers to set 3 goals and I did this myself too. I also asked them this week to create a visual motivation for one of their goals and, again, I did this as well.
Something I've struggled with lately is drinking the recommended amount of water throughout the day. I have tried a few different techniques, but I could never make it last. So, I thought this would be perfect for my visual motivation! So here is what I came up with.
For everyday I drink eight cups of water, I'm giving myself a dollar. Since I don't keep $1 bills in my house it'll just be a total on the side. I'd love to buy some new jeans from A&F or Hollister and figured this would be my motivation to do just that! The clothespins on top will help me tally the cups daily. The board is on top of my fridge for me to see from just about anywhere.
I created a board on my Pinterest page called 'Visual Motivations' that contain more I've found on there if you are interested.
Have you ever made a visual motivation to get you toward a goal? Did it work for you? Did you reward yourself when you reached it?
