How to Achieve Long-Term Goals
Failure is a given if immediate rewards aren’t considered
I recently have increased the intensity of my workout routine. I also have committed to spending several hours doing college homework every day. The majority of the benefits from these two activities will come later, but if I don’t see any result now, then I will lose the motivation to continue.
Many people create unrealistic goals for how they want to act. Maybe they make a resolution to do one hour in the gym every day. Or maybe they commit to reading a book every week. Yet, frequently they fall out of the habit before it even fully becomes a habit. They miss a day. They forget. They are too tired.
For the goals that I listed above, the unrealistic component is not the goal itself. Most people have the physical capacity to do any of their productive habits. The unrealistic element is that they don't focus enough on the immediate effects of their actions. When people say: “I will study for three hours a day every day so that I can get a degree”, they are missing a critical step. That of the immediate reward. Even if the reward is minimal, the focus on it is still equally important.
The motivation to do something today needs to come from something you obtain today, at least for most people. There are exceptions I can…
