Entering the New Year always felt optimistic. We usually make a list of what we would like to do or achieve in the upcoming year, we make plans, resolutions, we start from fresh. We continue in a good spirit, full of energy with our goals, be it working out with the newly purchased gym membership, with a new diet, or cutting down on alcohol consumption or spending habits.

And then the January draws to an end. The Blue Monday was tough. It was financially difficult month; we start to either fall back on the old habits or the motivation runs out. The weather doesn’t help either.

This year is particularly difficult as not only it is hard to plan anything, but after months of self-distancing and restricting, the mood is low, the future is still not clear, the vaccinations are going slow and we still do not know when, if at all, life will ever go back to being normal.

Taking all of this into account how can we motivate ourselves and get back on track? What can we do to help ourselves to achieve what we want to achieve, what we have set to do?

What is motivation anyway? The interesting thing about motivation is that it is internal. It is fully up to you to take an action. Others can encourage you, but at the end, nobody can force you to do something. This is great because it is fully up to you if you will do something, or not. But it is also not as easy as just having the desire to accomplish a goal - you still need to follow through with it. Here is what can help you with taking an action and preserving with it:

- Set an achievable goal. A goal that you can stick with. Make it something that is important to you, something that really matters.

- Make sure that you phrase it positively. Instead of saying “I want to quit…” say “I want to start…”

- Create an incentive for yourself. It is reinforcing to reward yourself with something nice

- Stop and think - are you lacking motivation or self-confidence? You may be doubting yourself and be afraid to proceed with your goal rather than being unmotivated. Think how to strengthen your self-assurance by addressing your anxieties.

- Slipups happen, no point of beating yourself up about it. Acknowledge it and move on – you lost the battle, not the war.

Sometimes it is very easy to get motivated, you get excited and energized and you just go for it, but then at other times you can find it near impossible to get yourself going, and the old friend called procrastination is surfacing. This is life. When the going gets tough and the balance is on the side of giving up, review your goals and remind yourself why you set the goal in the first place. Find some inspiration. Sometimes you just need to take a break and start from fresh.