No matter where you are in the country or the world for that matter, you’ve likely felt some effects from the Coronavirus pandemic. Nearly every state has issued some sort of stay-at-home order or has recommended social distancing. The CDC has certain guidelines for social distancing including staying at least six feet away from others, avoiding large gatherings, and limiting the number of people in groups. For most people, staying at home and isolating themselves from others has been the best way to stay safe and to flatten the curve of COVID-19.
Many businesses have made the switch to remote work so you can still work from home, and many schools across the country have implemented eLearning. Being forced to stay home all day and distance yourself from others isn’t easy, no matter how “normalized” things try to be. Chances are, you’ll have some extra free time on your hands.
Instead of wondering what you can do to pass the time or binge-watching your latest Netflix obsession (though there’s nothing wrong with that from time to time, either!), why not take this opportunity to focus on your goals or the things you’ve wanted to accomplish but have been putting off? Not only will the weeks of social distancing give you plenty of time to work toward your goals, but you can refocus yourself and determine what those goals are and how you’re going to reach them.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed during these uncertain times, but you can shift your focus and put more attention on your goals while social distancing. Let’s learn more about how that can happen.
Discover Your Motivation
Did you know that 80% of people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions each year? That’s not uncommon for people who set goals, and there are a few key factors that can cause you to lose focus on your goals and stop working toward them. A few of the biggest problems include the following:
- Not seeing results right away
- Getting distracted/too busy
- Losing your motivation
A lack of motivation can be a goal killer. If you don’t have the passion for something that you started out with, there will be less drive to get it done. Eventually, you might decide to give up on your goal completely. A lot of people make goals to lose weight or get fit, but if you lose the motivation to work out, you’re going to stop exercising and will have a harder time reaching those goals.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to stay motivated. It starts with discovering what actually motivates you in the first place. Simply ask yourself why you want to achieve certain goals. Do you want to lose weight? Is it to lower your blood pressure, or reduce your risk of diabetes or other issues that can arise with obesity? Or is it to feel more confident in yourself? If you want to be more productive at work, ask yourself “why.” Is it to get a promotion, or to feel more pride in what you do?
Any goal you have in mind should have a reason behind it that you’re passionate about. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it’s easy to give up on it or make excuses. Once you can figure out that underlying reason, you’re more likely to stay motivated as you stay focused on it.
No matter what your goals may be, you can stay motivated by doing the following things:
- Developing goals that you’re passionate about
- Having both short-term and long-term goals to achieve
- Remaining optimistic even when things don’t go as planned
- Giving yourself rewards along the way
- Surrounding yourself with positive, supportive people
In this time of social distancing, you can still get the encouragement you need from others with the help of technology. If you have a specific goal in mind that others might share, look for online forums or groups you can join to chat with others and help each other out along the way. If you’re feeling frustrated about a particular goal or you need support in other ways, connect with family members or friends on the phone or via apps like FaceTime or Zoom. Sometimes, a little pep talk from someone you care about can make a big difference. Just knowing someone who is important to you believes in what you’re doing and believes you can actually accomplish it can give you the motivational boost you need to keep going.
Stay On Track to Boost Your Confidence
Another way to stay motivated is to feel good about what you’re doing and the results you’re seeing. Confidence, as you work toward your goals, can play a big role in how you feel and how easy it is to stick with your goals.
Maybe you even have goals to build more confidence, in which case, continued focus on bettering yourself can help you to achieve it along the way. Building confidence as you work toward your goal can be an important part of a positive cycle. If you work hard and see results, you’ll gain more confidence, which can push you to work harder, which can help you to see more results.
If you’re struggling with your confidence as you work toward your goal, it might feel easier to give up. Instead, try some techniques that can give you a self-confidence boost:
- Visualizing what you want
- Stepping out of your comfort one
- Banishing negative thoughts
- Helping others
- Practicing self-care
It’s also important not to bog yourself down and to learn how to say “no” to others. People who lack self-confidence tend to stretch themselves too thin because they say yes to everything. You know what you can safely handle, so don’t allow others to pile on the stress and make you feel less valuable and unworthy by consuming all of your time.
Have the Right Tools in Your Corner — in the Palm of Your Hand
You might have a lot of time on your hands right now, but time is only part of the equation when it comes to accomplishing your goals. Having the right tools and resources at your disposal can make it easier to stay focused on the things you want. Technology has played a big role in how people connect and communicate throughout this pandemic, but it can also play a role in helping you to achieve your goals.
If you have fitness ambitions, for example, wearable fitness devices can keep track of your progress and push you to continue working toward your goals. The Apple Watch is a great example of a wearable tracker. It contains multiple features:
- Heart rate monitoring
- Fall detection
- Steps taken
- Calories burned
Other wearable devices can help you to monitor your sleep cycles, track what you eat in a day, and even help you to guide your breathing. They’re not just for losing weight, they’re useful for almost any practical health and wellness goal.
Apps are another great way to stay on track and work toward your goal without feeling like you have to do it alone. While it can seem like there’s an app for everything these days, that’s often a good thing. If staying at home has zapped your productivity, especially if you’re trying to work remotely, productivity applications like Evernote, Trello, and Slack can help you to stay on track with your daily tasks. You can even use them outside of work to develop positive, healthy habits each day and stay productive in everything you do.
Break the Cycle of Bad Habits
As important as it is to focus on your goals and work towards achieving them, it’s just as important to break the cycle of the things that could be holding you back. You might be your own worst enemy when it comes to accomplishing the things you want, but, bad habits aren’t always easy to stop. Some of the most common bad habits include eating poorly, sleeping poorly, or focusing on negativity.
Taking care of yourself, inside and out, is one of the best ways to achieve your goals sooner. For some people, that requires stepping away from the bad habits that are limiting what you can do. Things like negative thoughts or not getting enough sleep can have an extreme impact on your overall focus and can distract you from your goals.
So, what can you do to break the cycle?
First, keep in mind that it takes time to break a bad habit, just as it took time to develop it. Taking active and conscious steps toward breaking the cycle can help you to change your thoughts and actions. Try some of the following steps:
- Identify the source of your habit, even if it’s hard to admit it’s a problem.
- Write down a plan
- Implement your plan
- Measure your progress
- Maintain your progress
Breaking bad habits requires you to be honest with yourself. You might not want to admit that you’re struggling with things that are holding you back. You might also not want to let go of a habit that you’re comfortable with, even if you know it isn’t good for you. By taking these steps to break your bad habits, you can put more of your focus on your goals.
Stay Positive While You’re On Your Own
During this time of social distancing, you can focus on the things you’ve always wanted to do if you only had “more time,” but, it’s easy to let everything from the stress of the news to the routine of everyday life get in the way of staying motivated and reaching your goals.
Focus on the goals you can accomplish right now, and the goals you can accomplish in the future. Breaking them down into smaller categories can help them to feel less overwhelming while you’re isolated. Plus, being able to accomplish short-term, smaller goals now will help you stay motivated for the future when you try to work toward the larger ones.
If you’re having trouble staying positive, finding motivation, or staying focused on your goals while you’re “stuck” at home, try sticking with a daily schedule, having a specific space in your home to work, meditate, focus, and relax, and don’t be afraid to be optimistic. The goals you set for yourself now can absolutely carry over into your life far beyond social distancing.
Eventually, this pandemic will end and life will return to normal – even if it’s a “new normal” that we all have to adjust to. You may have more time, now, to focus on your goals, but when you look at the bigger picture, think about how working on those goals now will impact your future and how you can continue to focus on them, even after your life returns to normal.