When tackling a new project or life challenge, many of us rely solely on motivation to achieve our goals and hope that the initial thrill will sustain until the end. But motivation is an unreliable companion. Counting on it alone is why so many New Year’s resolutions fail, so many projects abort, and so many dreams never come true.
In my personal life, I have started many projects. Among those, starting my freelance business in Cloud Engineering, speaking four languages, and moving to another country are some of the successes I’m most proud of.
But for a few goals reached, I’d say there were about 100 times more projects that failed or were aborted.
Looking back at my past challenges, all my failures occurred for much the same reason: relying solely on motivation to achieve my goals.
This could mean :
- making big long-term plans (> 30 days) but forgetting about the daily things
- not being specific enough about what you want to achieve
- on the contrary, setting too many constraints and not cutting yourself any breaks (road to burnout)
- trying to pursue 10 big goals at the same time
None of these methods works because you assume your willpower will stay the same until the end of your project. Which, of course, never happens.
On the contrary, I found that all my successes used the same recipe: using my initial motivation to build momentum and create a baseline of work I couldn’t escape.
This baseline represents the minimum set of activities you must include to achieve the minimum result you consider a success. This means that
- This baseline should be light enough for you to do it even on your worst day
- It must be non-negotiable, which means you must not have the choice to do otherwise
Here are some examples to help create such a baseline :
- Use James Clear’s method to create tiny habits that you must do every day
- find ways to force yourself to do it: hire a teacher if you’re learning something, throw away junk food from your home if you’re on a diet.. find whatever tricks you into doing it
- making it clear in your mind that this goal is your #1 priority, even if it means neglecting the rest for a little while (if you can’t do that, then maybe this project is not that important).
- doing it first thing in the morning
- coming up with ways to make it fun and more enjoyable
Once you’ve set that baseline, you’ll still find out that your motivation comes and go : you’re going to have very productive days and lazier ones. But thanks to this system you’ve put in place, the “bad days” will still move you forward, and whenever you’re more motivated, you’ll be able to put in that extra mile and work past that baseline.
And you, what are your tricks for achieving your projects?