How To Stay Motivated When It Feels Like You’re Not Making Any Progress
How to stay motivated when your princess is in another castle.
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You’ve battled your way through the dungeons and finally reached that last stage of the castle. You’ve dodged, jumped, and barely beat the big boss.
Your fingers are cramped, hands sweaty on the controller. You are ready for the big cut scene. And then, instead, that dreaded message flashes on the screen. “Sorry, Mario …”
Official Nintendo Super Mario Question Mark Block Cookie Jar
Real-life can be like that too. We strive towards big dreams and exciting ideas. But sometimes, no matter what we do, it feels like we’re never getting any closer to those goals.
It’s tempting to want to quit and walk away. Maybe we think it’s better to try something else instead that might be easier.
But we’re not ready to give up. But we need to find the motivation to keep going. Here are some of the best ways to keep you in the game and ready to level up.
Look Smaller
We may be making incredible progress, but we’re looking at it with the wrong lens. Try zooming in and looking at smaller pieces. If it’s a big project, the goals might take years to accomplish.
But breaking those goals down into smaller ones, we can celebrate small victories on our path to achieving the bigger ones.
Visualize the Finish Line
Imagine what it will feel like to finally achieve this victory. How will your life be changed? Try to picture yourself living a day in your new life once you’ve reached this goal.
Having a clear picture in your mind of how great it will feel when you complete this project can help motivate you to keep going.
Remember Your Why
What was the reason that you started this quest in the first place? Remembering your Why can help to get you past those days of frustration. (Check out more about finding your purpose in The Importance of Why in Gaming and Life.)
Many people find that having a photo or object on their desk representing their purpose helps motivate them, like Homer Simpson that famously kept a picture of Maggie over his desk that said, “do it for her.”
Find Inspiration in Others
We each have a unique path, but we all face obstacles to accomplish our goals. Look up the story of someone that inspires you.
Whether a celebrity or CEO, they had to overcome many challenges to reach where they are now. Knowing that they were able to achieve their success can motivate us to push through ourselves.
Make It a Habit
When it comes to achieving long-term goals, consistency is key. But when we encounter a setback, it’s normal to want to take a break from it. Unfortunately, that day off becomes two and then three, and without planning to, we end up failing.
Schedule the time to work on that goal at the same time every week. That consistency will turn into a habit with time.
Our brains love habits. They allow our minds to switch to autopilot, and it will be much easier to continue moving forward on the project even when frustrated.
Stop Multitasking
Many of us take pride in our ability to work on many projects at once, yours truly included. We tell ourselves that instead of just one goal, we are working on all of them at once. But the reality is that multitasking can leave us frustrated.
Our time gets divided, so instead of putting in five hours per week on a task, we do only one hour per week on five different ones. And with less regular time in a project, it can feel like we are barely moving the needle at all in any one project after weeks and weeks of work.
Worse yet, we may end up dividing our time up so much that it instead becomes procrastination instead of progress. (Read more about overcoming procrastination in 10 Ways to Get out of the Quicksand of Procrastination.)
Instead, focus on only the goal, which is your highest priority. You will likely see progress faster, and it may help to keep you motivated.
Map Your Progress
Maps are a great way to see the distance we have already traveled and where we still need to go. Whether it’s a game map or Google maps, following along, you can see yourself getting closer and closer to the goal.
We can make a virtual map for any project. The road traveled is a list of all the achievements you have already completed working towards this task.
The mountains or rivers may be the obstacles, mistakes, or setbacks that have slowed your progress. And in the distance is the shining city of your victory, waiting for you to reach it.
Seeing all the progress that you have made and celebrating these milestones can help keep you motivated and on track.
Stay Positive
It’s hard not to get frustrated when it feels like you’re spinning your wheels. But doing your best to stay positive can make it much easier to jump right back to it. Choose success and just keep going.
Even if sometimes it feels like your goal never gets closer and it’s like your princess is in another castle, you are still on your way to defeating Bowser and winning your personal quest. (Find some real life quests in Real Life RPG – 25 Real Life Quests for Nerds, Geeks, Gamers, and Would-Be Adventurers.)
Celebrate your victory for completing each level and goal along the way. And be proud of how far you have already come. Keep going – you got this!
Author:
Laurie Trueblood is a writer and life coach that enjoys fantasy, science, psychology, and everything nerdy. As the founder of Adventures to Authenticity, her mission is to help others level up and become the best versions of themselves.
Read more about gaming and self-development: Can Gaming Help With Anxiety? and 20 Reasons Why We Buy Video Games that We Don’t Play
