Elizabeth Saigal

Many times we can identify rewards that will keep us moving forward. This external outcome provides a useful carrot, but the ultimate reward is the completion of your goals. What you really want is the internal drive. When you get really clear on what you are going for, you naturally become motivated from within to take the necessary steps as well as less impacted by the ups and downs of the processes required to get there. In other words, know what you want.

One way to connect with this internal motivation is by setting aside time to get really comprehensive and shine the light on any fuzzy or cloudy areas in your aspirations. Some people do this by journaling or creating a vision board or mind map, some by talking it out, and some just spend time reflecting. Choose a method that works for you and bring clarity to your vision. Knowing exactly what you want and, conversely, precisely what you do not want makes the path for achievement much clearer and can make a big difference to your goal accomplishment.

1) Build Your Vision

What is the mental picture you hold for your future? Add as much detail to this visualization of your experiences five or ten years from now as you can. Take your time and create an audio, visual, or written record of all the details you reveal. Keep adding to it until nothing else comes to mind.

If you have trouble getting started, use cues from your daily experiences such as movies, magazines, or books that demonstrate the quality of life that inspires you. Imagine how it will feel to be there. Fill in what your relationships and community experience will be like. What qualities do they have? Outline your health and physical condition in this image. Include your daily experience – how you spend your time and have fun. What is your financial outlook? Describe your living environment. All these different areas are connected and provide you with a full panoramic view so that you know precisely what you want in your future life.

Read More »Motivate Yourself: Key#1 Know Absolutely What You Want

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Just do your best!” It’s meant to be encouraging, but let’s be honest—sometimes doing your best feels like pressure. The idea of always squeezing out 100% effort can lead to burnout, perfectionism, and self-judgment. It is hard to balance and give 100% to recharge and rest. Is it necessary to give everything our absolute best effort?

Think about chopping vegetables for a meal. If you focus on making every piece perfectly even, you’ll probably spend too much time on it—and in the end, it won’t even affect the flavor! More is often lost in striving for perfection than gained.

But what if we shifted from doing our best to being our best? This simple change moves us from outcome-based thinking to a state of engaged presence. Instead of stressing over whether we’re doing enough, we recognize that as each moment occurs, whatever needs to be completed will be completed. There’s no need to judge whether we’ve done too much, too little, or the “wrong” thing. Our perspective shifts from the outcome to the type of engagement and good enough becomes perfect.

Here are three ways to make the shift:

Read More »Five Practices for switching ‘Doing Your Best’ to ‘Being Your Best’

In Part 1, I provided some possibilities for smartphone apps that you can carry with you providing constant backup on your missions! In this entry, I continue with website based applications:

9) Irunurun:

This supports new habit formation. You begin with zero points. To earn points you enter the action or habit you want to track and weight it with a point value. As you complete the actions you want to be held accountable for, you add points. You can also build an accountability team of friends and family and selectively share your progress with them.

Read More »Top Twenty Habit and Goal Apps to Support Getting It Done: Part 2 online options

How are you doing on those New Year’s resolutions?

Perhaps you wanted to shed holiday pounds through diet and exercise and have a healthier lifestyle?

If your motivation has taken a hit, these apps for self-coaching provide options for measuring your health-related activities. This type of self-observation delivers invaluable feedback and has been labeled the “quantified self” movement.

While I have not applied all of these to my life, I have seen firsthand how much impact logging your behavior can have. You can no longer hide behind approximations, but discover the truth behind your perceptions of your behavior. By getting data feedback you gain support and accountability. This increases your chances of success in much the same way as life coaching. Any new objective now has additional knowledge behind it that will allow you to make more realistic commitments.

Below, I describe the main features of health apps for self-coaching that will help you establish new habits.

Read More »Top Ten Health Apps That Allow You to Coach Yourself