35 How to Stay Consistent with Goals When Motivation Fades

How to Stay Consistent When Motivation Fades

You already know how to set goals. The real question involves implementation across a full schedule and a brain that stays busy. In this episode, Becky Hamm breaks down follow-through as a design problem and gives you two brain-based actions that reduce friction and protect execution over time.

Inside the episode, you’ll learn how to:

·       Set a predictable implementation time block you can hold for the next eight weeks

·       Link the block to an existing anchor in your day so you cut decision fatigue

·       Create a simple start ritual that gets you into motion fast

·       Build reinforcement through small, logged wins so your brain expects follow-through

·       Keep execution moving across a full quarter without constant negotiation

Becky also shares how The Success Blueprint supports goal setting, goal implementation, and a fast reset process when you fall off track. Grab it through the link in the show notes.

Want a more strategic way to grow with clarity and momentum? Explore leadership coaching with Becky through Women Lead Well.

Listen now, then choose one goal and do two things today:

1.     Put your implementation block on the calendar

2.     Complete one small action and log the win

#podcastforwomen #womenwholead #joyfullyunstoppable #womenleadwell #leadership #womeninleadership #leadershipdevelopment #goals #goalsetting #goalachievement #followthrough #decisionfatigue #executivefunction #habits #productivity #sustainablesuccess #authenticleadership #confidentleadership

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Transcript

0:46

Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable, the podcast for women who are ready to succeed without the stress. Whether you're leading a team, a classroom, a boardroom, or your own big, beautiful life, I am so glad you found us. I'm your host, Becky Hamm, leadership coach, speaker and founder of Women Lead Well. Each week we'll explore what it means to lead joyfully, sustainably, and authentically. Even in a world that tells you to hustle harder and prove your worth, you carry a lot. Let's help it feel lighter. Okay. Now if you listen to the last episode, you already have our brain-based explanation for why motivation fades after the first few weeks of the year, or the first few weeks of implementing a goal, and why 92% of us don't achieve the goals we set today. It's about changing that percentage, putting you in the 8%. Anyway, so today we're gonna talk about implementation and what you can do to automate implementation. So when motivation starts to drain, when your brain starts to economize or work for efficiency, you have set yourself up for success. Now, How do you keep follow through going across the full quarter, across six months, across the whole year? Inside a schedule that's already pretty full and a brain that's already operating at a pretty high level. It's just a practical question. Many goals are set with real intention and then the execution that you need in order to actually achieve the goal. It can start to require more and more mental effort. And so if you haven't listened to that first episode from last week, go back and listen to it when, when you're done listening to this one, to get that deeper explanation of why I am not gonna go into it today. I spent about 20 minutes last week talking about it, but the answer is it's not because the goal is any less important. It is simply that when the novelty wears off and the brain has to manage all of the competing responsibilities that it has to keep your body alive. It's gonna cut what it sees as non-essential and kind of the first in, first out principle, these new goals that you're working to achieve. That's new. It takes a heavier lift'cause it hasn't automated. It hasn't built the The implementation. Systematized the implementation yet. And so. The brain keeps having to answer the same questions. When am I gonna do this? How am I gonna fit it in? Do I have the energy for this today? Hint? Probably not. Does it matter as much? Does it really matter to me? Does it, does it still matter to me this week? Do I have to do this now? Can I wait on this? Right? You've asked yourself these questions before you know exactly what I'm talking about. Those questions are natural, they're normal, but they create friction. And friction impedes progress. So today I'm gonna give you two actions that you can take to reduce that friction and protect your execution. And I'm just giving you two because I want it to be simple. The simpler you can make implementation, the more automatic you can make implementation, the more likely you are to achieve your goals. And I wanna be clear with you, these are not productivity hacks. These are like design moves. These are how you systematize the implementation of your goals, and they work. Because they reduce the mental cost of goal implementation. They make follow through easier for your brain and they build that repetitive, consistent sense of self-trust over time. Because the more rewards, the more frequently you reward your brain for the behaviors that it takes, the more often it's gonna take that behavior. It's just brain science. So if you haven't picked up the Success Blueprint, my goal setting, goal implementation, goal achievement mini course, now is a great time to do so. In the Success Blueprint, I'll go into even greater depth on how to failure proof, your goals, and I give you a very easy process to follow if you do fall off track, to bring you back to implementation quickly, easily, and effectively. If you're interested in that, you can find the link in the show notes below. What I wanna do now is I wanna talk to you about follow through in a way that matches how we actually operate. What we actually do, and I'm gonna talk to execution as a design problem. You probably have a high decision life, right? Your calendar is not open. You don't have a ton of white space. You're not looking for things to do. Your to-do list is probably pretty long. It's probably got more than one no fail task on it, and you were probably called in multiple directions. If you look at your professional life and your personal life, you probably. Have things that you really have to pay attention to. People who need things from you, deadlines that you can't miss, decisions that only you can make. Right? That's normal. That's what it means to be an effective leader. That what, that's what it means to be a successful woman. And so those aren't flaws. Those are just, that's just the reality of you. Goals that live outside of that system are expensive. They require constant decision making, small, minor decision making, like I said, like, am I gonna do this? When am I gonna do this today? What do I have to move in order to do this today? You have to remember that you have to do the thing, right? So you have to keep, if you wanna be successful at implementing your goals, if you have to keep pulling the goal back onto the stage and asking it to compete for time and attention. And, and that's mental load, that's decision fatigue. Your brain has a very predictable response to that. It starts treating the goal as optional work that requires extra energy and optional work is always, every single time gonna lose out to urgent work, even when the optional work carries the greater long-term value. So the point of today is very simple. We're gonna design follow through. So the brain does less negotiating, so it carries less cognitive load, and there are two conditions that are gonna make that possible. The first is predictability. Our brains run more smoothly, more efficiently, easier when the timing is. Known, predictable, stable. The second feature is reinforcement. The brain is gonna repeat behavior more reliably when it receives clear evidence That follow through happens. That's those, you wanna log your wins and you wanna have frequent wins, frequent, easy, small wins.'cause that builds that. That neuro pathway that I do the thing, I get a reward. I get my dopamine hit of success. I can check it off the list. I've done the, the, there is see the progress. I see how I'm making progress toward the goal. It's what makes the messy middle so hard is it gets hard to see that progress toward the goal. There's an episode on the messy middle that I'll link, uh, down in the show notes for you if you're not familiar with that idea. So the good thing is. That you don't need a ton of tactics. You don't need fancy nothing. In fact, you need less, not more, right? What you need are smaller, less reflective, more automatic decisions that build the system of reliable execution, and that's what we're talking about today. So I'm gonna give you two decisive actions. Decisive action. Number one is about timing. How do we make the timing predictable and reliable? Because the brain executes more reliably, more effectively when that timing question is settled, when it's not trying to negotiate when, and and this is just a, a lot of goals are vague on timing. They live in that kind of, I'll make time for it because it's important. I'll get to it. If this happens, then it'll go here. But if this other thing happens, it'll go there. So here's what you do. Action. Step number one. You pick a specific day and time that. You can commit to for the next eight weeks. You gotta give it two months. And I'm making that eight weeks up. I don't, maybe it's 10, maybe it's 12. Maybe it's six I, it's gotta be longer than six. Like you actually wanna build the habit. So I would see a minimum of eight weeks. And this is when you're gonna do your goal, period. So here's an example of what that might look like. I will work on this goal. I'm trying to write a book, I'm not, but let's just say. I am going to spend an hour working on my book every Tuesday at seven 30 in the morning before my first meeting. You don't have to worry about the cal. It is on your dang calendar. You don't have to find a perfect window. It's just when you're gonna do it, it's when it's gonna happen. You take out that weekly debate about whether the goal belongs on the list or does you, do you really wanna write a book? Is that really gonna, it just takes all of that and you just Tuesday at seven 30, that's just when it happens. And I say seven 30, I, I put it in the morning. That was intentional. Remember, decision fatigue. The more decisions your brain makes in a day, the harder it is to do the more difficult things. Put the biggest rocks first thing in the morning. If you're a morning person, if you're a night owl, then maybe you wanna put your rocks in the evening, but you put the goal, the thing that takes the actual mental energy so you can build the momentum to make it. Kind of automatic. You put that when your brain is most able to do the heavy lifting. For most people, that's gonna be in the morning again, night owls, it might be in the evening. You know you, so you put it when it is best suited for you. And then you show the F up every Tuesday at seven 30 and it doesn't care how you feel. Doesn't matter if you don't wanna do it, doesn't matter if you're sick, that's the time you do the work. The work might not be good that day because you're sick, but you're doing the work on that day. Right? That's just how it works. A Preci time block just get you to show up consistently. It does not have to be perfect. It just has to happen. And now let me give you like two practical tips to help this feel. More doable because I, I will confess for myself, I won't speak for anybody else, but I've done time blocking. I've put stuff on the calendar and then the time has come on the calendar and I haven't done the thing. That's not gonna help you. That doesn't, putting it on the calendar is not what executes it, right? Like you doing the work. So, um, two things that you can do to help actually get you to show up at the time that you put on the calendar. First is to link it to an existing anchor. So before my first meeting is an anchor. It reduces the variables. It keeps the timing stable, even if a day changes, right? And then the second thing that you can do is come up with like a, a start ritual. Something simple like you're gonna open your laptop, you're gonna open the document, you're gonna see your notes, you've got the clear. Like first couple of steps, you want your first 30, 60 seconds to be automatic, this is the muscle memory of starting to work for me. I fill my water and then I set my water. I don't know why, but before I come into this office and do anything, I fill that little Stanley with water because I know I'm gonna wanna work, drink throughout the, but that is my, it's time to work.'cause my laptop's always open. I don't ever close it. So that is my, let's go. So figure out one link the, the action to an existing anchor. You're gonna do it before work or seven 30 before your first meeting, whatever that, whatever it is for you at night after the kids go to bed. But you link it to something that's already established in your brain. So you're like habit stacking the doing of the thing. And then second, build yourself. That little ritual that signals it's time to go. Okay. Doing those two things reduces your cognitive load. It builds that like automatic automaticity, is that the word? It makes it automatic, and you're not, you're not deciding. You're taking away that decision tax, so you're doing it more efficiently, which is gonna make your brain more likely to do it. Okay, here's another thing I'm gonna say. Leaders, I talked earlier about just doing it, not worrying about being perfect. We can, if I put seven 30 on the calendar, is it gonna be for 30 minutes? Is it gonna be 60 minutes? Do I have 60 minutes? Is it 45? Am I cheating myself? If it's 45, here's what I would say. When you tell your brain, this is when I'm gonna do it, you are simply building, expectation, predictability. so you put it at seven 30 because you're a morning person and you're gonna get it done before your first meeting at eight 30. Okay, great. If it's 30 minutes that day, then it's 30 minutes that day. If it's 45 minutes that day, then it's 45 minutes. That's okay. It's seven 30 and your brain knows to predict seven 30. Goal time. Seven 30 is when I write the book. Seven 30 is when I write the book. Seven 30 is when I write the book. That consistency, creates the pattern that the brain recognizes. And again, one day you might be more productive than the other day. That's okay. You're still clocking the win, which is, I worked on the goal this day. And you're gonna reward yourself for the work that you did on your goal. If it was crappy, you're gonna reward yourself for showing up when you didn't feel like it. If it was amazing, you're gonna reward yourself for the amazing. you're just building the consistency, so don't beat yourself up over the perfection of the block, the win is that you showed up and did the work during the block. That's the entire win. So clock the win. Because the more often you do that, the work becomes familiar and familiar work requires less energy. And I know that there are some of us who hate routines and we love spontaneity. Okay, great, that's fine, but you still have to get over the hurdle of your brain needing to make the goal energy efficient. So just invest the eight weeks or the 10 weeks, the 12, whatever, whatever it takes for it to become routine for you. Everyone's gonna be a little different. Invest that time. Get past the, this is hard for my brain to do. And once you've done that. Then find ways to make it spontaneous and fun, because maybe that's what gets you from month three to month six and month 12. I'm not saying you have to do this the same way for the entire duration of your goal. What I'm saying is you've gotta do it for long enough to take away the decision making and just make it an efficient part of what you already do. Make it normal. Don't make it past the new phase. That was action number one. Get it on the calendar. Show up, do it, do it ugly. That's fine. Just freaking do it. Action number two is about reinforcement. Our brains respond strongly to evidence. That's all it's doing all the time is sensing, right? And so when evidence is frequent and clear. That is more meaningful evidence than evidence that is vague and sporadic. And so your brain is gonna update its expectations about what you do based on frequent and clear signals. And this is really important because our motivation naturally is gonna fluctuate for a billion different reasons that we're not gonna get into right now. The evidence, that information coming in through the reticular activating system, that is what stabilizes our behavior. And so here's an example that might sound like, sound like, okay, but so what? Right? You can tell yourself, I trust myself to follow through on what matters. Well, that's great, but you have to build daily evidence of following through on your actions, right? You keep a small commitment every day. And you check it off, you mark it as being complete. You acknowledge that you've done the thing. This is not about building like this crazy long to-do list. Again, I'm telling you, shorter, fewer goals, less action is gonna lead to a bigger payoff because you're actually gonna do it. It's about building the reliable signal We. As women, as leaders, we often carry commitments for other people. And that might be deadlines, it might be deliverables, it might be meetings, it might be decisions, it might be carpool, it might be, uh, our kids' hockey league, right? We carry a lot for others. Those commitments are visible, they're tracked, they get reinforced. Our internal commitments can disappear because they're private. They don't get that same reinforcement loop. And so this action, that reinforcement that you do the thing and you log the win, that gives you internal follow through that is visible to you. The commitment is small on purpose because the brain does better with reliability. Intensity is great, but reliability, consistency is key. So I said, you show up seven 30 on Tuesdays to write the book. Great. Let's say, um, you're trying to set some boundaries that, that, that's related to your goals for the year, and so you have a commitment to yourself that you're not gonna check email the first 30 minutes of the day. You're gonna give yourself time to wake up before you jump in. Great. Let's say you draft a page of your book. Let's say you outline a plan. Let's say you have a key conversation. The specifically action, the things that you're gonna do day to day, that's gonna vary. What matters is that you show up consistently, that you keep the commitment day after day after day. And not only that, you do the thing. But that you acknowledge to yourself, you send the very clear, conscious message. I did the thing. You can do that in a notes app. I've talked before about the journal app on my phone. That's where I, I log those wins for myself. Maybe it's a tracker, maybe it is a check mark. Who knows? The tool doesn't matter. The brain just needs the signal. And when you do that over time, think about it. If you do that every day for a week. By the end of week one, if we're just talking work week, right? You've got five pieces of evidence that you're gonna show up by the end of week two, 10 pieces of evidence, reticular activating system, oh, I'm gonna go look for more evidence. Your brain starts to update its expectations. Follow through becomes expected. It becomes familiar. That familiarity reduces resistance. Uh, you stop spending your energy trying to convince yourself to execute. These two actions work because they reduce the mental cost of execution. They strengthen self-trust. Through evidence, through consistent action that you acknowledge. So thing number one, pre-decide when you're gonna do the thing. Put your goal on the calendar in a way that you can commit to for eight weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks. And you just, you treat that as non-negotiable. You're gonna show up even if the actual work on that day isn't great. Doesn't matter. The key, the commitment is showing up. And number two, reliability. Build the daily evidence of the work. The work itself is the success, the quality of the work. You can tweak it over time. You just can, but show up. When you say you're gonna show up, you keep one small commitment every day and mark that commitment as complete honor the work when you do it, so your brain gets the proof that it needs, that you're following through on your actions. This is implementation. Without negotiation. This is how you automate implementation and automation is the key to success. So find one of your goals that you're working on today. Put it on your calendar. Pick one thing that you're gonna do today for your goal. And do it. Start collecting your evidence right now. Don't wait. Don't sleep on this. This is how you get in. The 8% of goals that get that get achieved. This is how your follow through becomes automatic. And again, this is the perfect time to check out the Success Blueprint where I walk you step by step through setting goals that truly light you up. Building a plan to turn those goals into reality and implementing your plan with ease. It's only$26 and it is a no-brainer if you are looking to achieve big juicy goals this year. Now, I hope you'll join me next week as we continue our conversation about the inner critic, that voice in our heads that tell us we aren't doing enough or we're doing the wrong things, or we just can't get anything right. Once you understand where that voice is coming from, it becomes a whole lot easier to move past it. Now if this episode spoke to you, I would love for you to share it with a friend who's running on empty. We need more women leading from alignment, not adrenaline. And please don't forget to like and subscribe. And if you could leave a review, I would really deeply appreciate it. Building those reviews on Spotify, apple, and YouTube really does help a little podcast like mine get some traction and get it shown to more women who could benefit from it. Also, you can grab one of our free resources, like the Thought Catching Journal prompts, the weekly Reset routine, and the Mental Load Reset, all available on the Women Lead Well website, and I'll link'em in the show notes below. Remember, joyful, sustainable, and authentic leadership is possible, and you deserve to enjoy every minute of it. Until next time, I'm Becky Hamm and this is joyfully Unstoppable.