Stay Motivated by Breaking Down Your Goals

We all lose motivation at one time or another. The key to getting and staying motivated is to keep goals and vision top of mind. In one of our most recent podcasts, we talked about how to stay focused on the end goal without getting overwhelmed.

The Key to Staying Motivated: Break Big Goals Down

Here again, goals aren’t just about us – we need to think about our vision for our lives, our families, our communities, the people we work with, our neighbourhood. Everyone is different, and depending on how we identify and what we want to do, we could have a very specific purpose and point of view for each of these.

Those bigger goals can seem insurmountable at first. And if we’re just looking at all of our goals, it’s easy to feel the opposite of motivated.

How to Break Your Goals Down

1. If this happens, reconfigure those big goals: look at the one that is the most important, the one you want to complete in the next year to two years.
2. Then rank the other goals based on how meaningful they are and how they rank in terms of priority.
3. Get to work: with your goals organized by priority, start working on each one, focusing on the highest priority goal first.

Managing “Big” Goals

Small goals achieved every day add up to big goals accomplished.

But what the goal being pursued is a big one? You want to make the leap in your career to the top, or become certified as a fitness instructor?

For once, our advice is to look at the smaller picture.

What do we mean by that? Break down your goals into smaller ones: maybe you can reach your goal in five years. What would you need to have done in 2 years? One year? Six months? A week?

Break goals down into smaller chunks that are easier to manage. Knowing that you’re getting to the bigger picture will be that thing that drives you, pulls you towards the direction of your goals. But having bite-size goals and small to-dos means being able to get there without feeling overwhelmed.

More Resources

At FirefighterToolbox, we’re planning a year packed with great interviews and even more resources to help you stay motivated to reach your goals and become a better firefighter.

Please share this if you found any of our tips useful, and let us know in the comments section what helps you keep track of your goals.

For more on creating goals for firefighters, check out this previous podcast.