How To Stay Motivated To Reach Your Goals

How To Stay Motivated To Reach Your Goals
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links and I may receive a commission if you purchase through them.

Ever wonder what it takes to be successful?

Time, consistency, hard work and motivation are all key ingredients that are needed in order to achieve a goal.

Something that I’ve always struggled with in the past was finding this drive within to keep myself motivated.

It’s easy to get excited about a new project or goal. But it’s even easier to lose motivation if you don’t set your mind on completing it, if you feel overwhelmed, sidetracked, or run into obstacles.

reach all your goals by staying motivated

You see this happening all the time when people set their new year’s resolutions. They become very optimistic about a whole list of things that they want to change about themselves at the start of the new year.

The perfect example of the situation above is the great increase in gym-goers at the beginning of a new year.

Gyms are fully packed in January and February but as the months pass by, they start to empty out. Many people start lacking the motivation and consistency to go. Finally, they eventually stop working out altogether.

8 Ways To Stay Motivated To Reach Your Goals

Whether you want to ace your biology exam in school, complete a personal project at home, lose 50 pounds, or land your dream career, you need the patience, the right mindset, and the persistence to get there.

Here are 8 ways to stay motivated to reach your goals.

laptop and coffee on the bed

1. Always have a clear goal in mind

It’s hard to find motivation and continuously feel inspired unless you have a clear and achievable goal in mind.

You don’t want to set an unrealistic goal so far-fetched that you’ll just procrastinate and not work towards it at all.

To make sure you’re setting the right kind of goals, you’ll want to set up S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Read all about what S.M.A.R.T. goals are in my post here.

list of goals in a tablet

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For example, I wanted to go to the gym more regularly this year.

In order to actualize my desire to exercise more but not overwhelm myself and discourage myself from achieving it, I set a specific schedule for myself that was realistic and tangible.

I set 3 to 4 days a week as my goal because I knew it was doable and it wasn’t an excessive amount of time. I also set very specific fitness goals of how I wanted to improve my body.

It’s important to set your goals but of course, just having a goal in mind is not going to help you achieve your dream or reach your goals.

The hard part is taking the time to lay out what you need to do step by step and actually putting in the hours consistently to get there.

In order to keep you on track, I recommend that you get a planner that will help guide you every step of the way.

Check out my Goal Setting Planner For 2025. This planner will help get you on track to reaching all your goals this year and be more productive.

Like using digital spreadsheets more? You can check out my easy to use, all-in-one Goal Planner & Tracker Spreadsheet.

goal setting planner 2025

What You’ll Get In The Goal Setting Planner


  • Brainstorming pages
  • Pages to organize, prioritize, and set S.M.A.R.T. goals
  • A two-part S.M.A.R.T. Goal Game Plan
  • 3 goal trackers to track your progress (includes a milestones and celebrations section)
  • 3 planner types (daily scheduling, weekly, and quarterly)
  • 3 review pages (weekly, quarter, and yearly)
  • Monthly dated calendars (Jan to Dec 2025)
  • A 2025 Calendar
  • 3 habit trackers (weekly, monthly, and yearly)
  • 3 checklists (general, daily, and weekly)
  • Lined notes

2. Get Excited & Find inspiration

One way to stay motivated about your end goal is to become excited about it. Excitement helps to fuel hard work and can help you stay on track even when you aren’t feeling like working that day.

You can find inspiration from different channels and outlets, both online and offline. Here are some examples below.

stay motivated flowers coffee

Read autobiographies of successful or famous people

Reading about others who have achieved something similar to what you are trying to accomplish can really help keep you inspired and motivated.

If you’re not really into reading, you can still get inspired by listening to audiobooks. Click here if you’re interested in trying Audible and you’ll get 1 free audiobook with my link.

Follow a person or organization that inspires you

Follow and keep up with blogs or social media platforms (such as on YouTube, Facebook, etc) who are publicly documenting how they are achieving a similar goal to you.

Subscribe to relevant magazines, articles, or newsletters

Keeping up with what’s new and popular in magazines, articles, and blogs can help keep you informed and inspired.

Create an inspiration board

Cut out pictures or quotes from magazines and newspapers and create a visual board that you can refer to when you’re feeling uninspired.

You can also add art prints that bring about feelings of positivity and motivation to your board.

Speak with like-minded individuals

You never know what you might learn from talking with others and you may gain new insights and ideas.

To feel inspired, I like to follow fitness-oriented individuals who document their workouts and meal preps so that I become excited and motivated to see personal results when I go to the gym.

Read Books On Self-Improvement

Whatever goal you are trying to reach, read books written by the experts on the subject.

You’ll find golden nuggets of advice and find the inspiration within yourself to accomplish what you need to do to get there.

Get a list of 25 must-read books for self-improvement in this post.

stay motivated this year to reach your goals

3. Find a friend with a common goal and work towards it together

Having a friend or buddy to keep each other motivated is a win-win situation.

Not only will you and your friend both help each other reach your goals, but it can also strengthen your friendship as you build rapport and experience new things with one another.

A great example is finding a gym buddy who has the same fitness goals as you so you can push each other to go to the gym even if you aren’t feeling like going that day.

pillow planner

4. Take baby steps one day at a time

Keeping in mind what you want to achieve is necessary but sometimes it can feel extremely overwhelming if you only focus on the fact that you have yet to reach your destination.

If you feel anxious or overwhelmed by everything you haven’t done yet, calm down and take a deep breath. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day.

If you continue to work hard and take baby steps one day at a time, eventually all of these steps will add up and you will see results.

make it happen journal

5. Keep a diary or log to track your progress

Sometimes you can’t see all of the small achievements that you have already accomplished because what you still haven’t achieved clouds your vision.

A great way to help you to continue to feel motivated is keeping a documentation of what you have done, whether in virtual form or physically, like a planner designed to help you reach all your goals.

When you see all the hard work you put into working towards your goal and the crazy amount of progress you have made, you will feel great about yourself.

Goal Setting Planner 2025

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Continuously review this log weekly, monthly, and yearly so that you can see all that you have accomplished. It’ll make you feel excited about how much more you can achieve and it can help push you even harder.

Reviewing this log frequently can also help you evaluate what changes you need to make in order to be more efficient. You may discover a missing step that can help you achieve your goal faster and easier.

Doing these things allow you to see which areas you’ve worked on and to evaluate what you need to change in order to improve yourself.

how to stay motivated & reach your goals today

6. Switch up your routine or environment to stay motivated

Sometimes being in the same environment and completing repetitive tasks day in and day out can make you feel like you’re stuck in a rut.

Switching up your surroundings to change your routine can enlighten you and bring you a new perspective.

For example, if you work or study at home all day, go to the library or a cafe instead to switch your environment up.

Or if you work at a cubicle at your office or have your own home office, find ways to decorate your desk so that it brings you happiness and inspires you to be as productivity and creativity as possible.

7. Take a break when you need to recharge

a cup of coffee and a notebook

Always find a way to take a break and recharge yourself when you feel like you’re burning out or feeling that things aren’t working out.

Find something to take your mind off of it temporarily. If that means taking a mini vacation, going out with friends for drinks, or going to the spa to get a facial, do it.

Always take time out of your day to focus on practicing self-care because your mental and physical health are important.

Once you come back, you should feel more refreshed and ready to take on what needs to be done.

list of goals on a clipboard

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Get your free list of goal ideas you can start working towards straight to your inbox. Start working towards your dream life today!

8. Don’t be discouraged if you fail

Failing isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Many successful people fail at first but then pick themselves up again until they succeed.

They learn what works and what doesn’t work for them until they find the best path to achieve their goal.

Let your failures motivate you to reach your goal. Persistence is key!

how to stay motivated to reach your goals

Conclusion

If you are trying to accomplish a goal, keep pushing on to find creative ways to continue motivating yourself.

Find a way to de-stress and take a break to clear your mind if you feel overwhelmed or need to recharge and remember to keep practicing daily self-care.

Become inspired and excited to reach your goal by working hard and being consistent. Success will follow.

Don’t forget to check out my other posts on goal setting and being more productive with your day:

What are some ways that help you to stay motivated? Feel free to share!

11 Comments

  1. What a lovely post! I love the idea of leaning on a friend for motivation. They are great for when you need support. Finding inspiration or a role model has helped me drastically too. Thanks!

  2. These were some brilliant tips, I sometimes lack motivation, but I do quiet a few of these things to get myself going again! x

    Han | lifewithhan.blog

  3. Rikki Parker says:

    I wish I had a friend who had similar goals as me. I spend a lot of time alone and it’s hard to get motivated sometimes. These are great tips and I think inspiration and motivation is a big factor for me. Great post!

    1. Thanks Rikki! You can try to find someone who has similar goals to you online. Maybe join some Facebook groups with similar likeminded individuals like yourself and go from there!

  4. Brit Haines says:

    Awesome post full of great tips to stay motivated! I have a HUGE problem procrastinating, so I find a little bit of action each day (working toward each of my goals a little bit every single day) definitely helps me stay on track. Thanks!

    1. Thanks Brit! I like your idea of doing bits little everyday to reach your bigger goal! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  5. Dilek Asanoska says:

    These tips are really awesome. I usually read stories about successful people, and seeing how they overcame their hardships makes me want to work even harder! Thank you for a very lovely post!

    1. Thank you, Dilek 🙂 I love reading other people’s success stories too – definitely keeps me motivated!

  6. Katelyn Sinclair says:

    These tips were so helpful! Thank you for sharing.

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