5 WAYS TO STAY MOTIVATED THIS MONDAY

Achieving anything of meaning to you is going to take a big chunk of motivation and there will be times where you're hanging on by a thread. Here's five ways you can can start gain and retain your motivation to ensure you do all you can to win.

1/ UNDERSTAND YOUR WHY: This is number one for a reason. Having a goal is great, but if that goal doesn't hold strong enough meaning to you then you're set up to fail. It needs to matter, and you need to recognise why it matters. For me I started in health and fitness to build my confidence, I felt my lack of confidence held me back every day so this was a huge reason for me to push forward.

2/ MANAGE MOTIVATION'S ENEMIES: Motivation has a couple of thorns in it's side. Procrastination, laziness, fear, distraction, lack of patience and comfort to name a few, but when you recognise yourself as a person and your own personal strengths and weaknesses you'll see which of these often get in the way of your motivation. If you can pre-empt knowing where you might self sabotage it makes it all the easier to understand and manage.

3/ BE CLEAR ON YOUR GOALS: You might want to lose weight, make more money, own your home, get a promotion at work. Whatever your personal goals, make them crystal clear. Without having specific goals it's too easy to feel the gap between you and your goal is too far. The whole SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time based) goal system has been beaten over the head the last few years, but for good reason.

4/ BE ACCOUNTABLE: Make others aware of what you want to achieve. I don't mean plaster it all over social media. I mean tell those around you who mean most to you, who you can count on for not only support and encouragement, but also to crack the whip on you when needs be too. As a Trainer I find accountability is one of the biggest values I bring to the table with my clients. Often it's not that we need more information, it's that we need some fire on us to enusre we use it.

5/ STANDARDS: Being a person of high standards will carry you a long way. If you have average standards of yourself and those around you, I promise you average results, no doubt about it. There is nothing wrong with seeking perfection, because the fact is that although you may never find perfection in anything, what you will find is excellence, and that beats average every time.