Lesson of the day: set a goal when you start something new, evaluate it when you reach the goal, don’t stop till you reach it or you will regret later.
When you start something new, do you think of quitting in the middle because it’s too much for you? For example, when you start a new job and the working load is more than you expected, or when you join a marathon (although you’re not a regular runner and you don’t train specifically for this).
Do you like to be a quitter?
I’m sure that none of us like to be labelled as quitters. When I quit something halfway, the decision of quitting is haunting me and it doesn’t make me feel good about myself.
The trick I learned and I’d like to share is setting a goal.
When we start our journey, setting a goal creates a mental image in our mind, what do we expect to “see” at the end of the “road”. We know that we are heading that way, when some obstacles comes in front, we will still be reminded that we are about to get there.
But the journey to reach our destination may not be easy. Not just once, it’s often we will face more obstacles or walls. Do you quit after you have your first obstacle? Hope not. How about the second, third and so on, are you sure that you’re going to go on?
Therefore, there is second tips, which is having pit stop. In formula 1 racing, the racers need to go to pit stop to recharge their fuel or change their tires. It’s the same with us. We should have “pit stops” along our way. It’s similar to reward ourselves or replenish our energy for the next journey. Or, when you deal with kids, sometimes you’ll give a candy or chocolate for their good marks or when they behave nicely. It’s kind of motivate ourselves too.
I used to be a very lazy person to exercise regularly, put it bluntly. I like to play sports with others like basketball or volleyball, but when it comes to exercise alone, I just can’t do it. I have zero determination when it comes to exercise alone.
I set a goal later, I should go to gym at least once a week for a month, then I will rewards myself with shopping up to certain amount of money. Once I made it, it made me feel good. I will increase the intensity and will give myself bigger reward. Until I’m used to go to gym, and feel weird if I don’t exercise, I stopped to give rewards to myself. Because, having healthy life is the ultimate rewards.
Another tips is when setting a goal, we need to set a realistic goal. Otherwise it will defeat the purpose and it will make us feel bad because we can’t never reach it, or not challenging enough because it’s too easy.
To sum up, here is the steps to stop being a quitter:
- Set a goal
- Build pit stops along the journey
- Make sure that the goal is a realistic goal
I’d like to hear yours.
