How to stay motivated and focused this year!
Happy Monday Everyone!
I hope 2025 has been good to you thus far! We’re 6 weeks into the New Year and I wanted to check in to see how you’re doing with your New Year Resolutions. It’s very common around this time of year to lose that drive and focus to strive towards your goals. This is why I want to share with you some key strategies to help you stay on top of your game!
It’s so important to make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T goals. This is a framework that’s designed to set clear and achievable goals.
S.M.A.R.T goals stands for;
S - Specific: Your goals should be clear and precise! If your goal is to lose weight, it’s important to indicate how much weight and how to get there?
M - Measurable: I love that ol saying, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” You have to track and/or visit your goals a couple times a week to make sure you’re on track. Or at the very least, get back on track if you’ve lost your way!
A - Attainable: Your goals should stretch you out of your comfort zone but if it feels too far out of reach, you might feel discouraged. This is where I would invite you to break it down into bite size pieces so you can build momentum towards a big goal.
R - Relevant: I love this quote by Les Brown “When you have a strong enough WHY, you will withstand any HOW!” Always remind yourself why you’re doing this! This will serve you especially when life finds a way to derail you.
T - Time Bound: When you give your goals a time frame, it allows you to stay focused on the task, giving you a clear end point to evaluate your success.
Now, for the Motivation Piece!
It’s one thing to use the S.M.A.R.T goal framework to help achieve your goals but what if you’ve lost your motivation?
There’s so many things that can hijack your motivation including poor quality sleep, lack of nutrition and doom scrolling on social media.
I was listening to Jay Shetty’s Podcast during my workout this morning and he was interviewing T.J. Power, a Neuroscientist who created The Dose Effect. Dose is an acronym that stands for Dopamin, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These are Feel-Good Neurotransmitters that boost your mood. I was fascinated to learn the role of each chemical, especially Dopamin. Dopamin is the leading chemical for motivation and focus. Dopamin works great if it is well-balanced. Habits that best support a well-balanced Dopamin include completing small tasks and avoiding doom scrolling on social media. T.J. explains that scrolling social media gives us a rapid spike and crash in Dopamine which hijacks our motivation and focus.
Here’s the link to the Podcast so you can learn more on this topic. If you find yourself feeling unmotivated, this will give you a clearer understanding of how your current symptoms are associated with the levels of each chemical and ways you can find balanced within your neurotransmitters that will best support you as you strive towards your goals this year.
https://youtu.be/d1e_Y88en3M?si=tZeKDjP74qkoQz8P
I hope this blog post serves you well!!!!
I’d love to hear your feedback on this blog post or Jay Shetty’s podcast interview and how it would best support you.
If you feel this would benefit someone you know, feel free to spread the love by sharing this blog post.
Until next time, please take care of yourself
Sincerely yours
Nancy Pitre
Health & Wellness Coach