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by Adam Pash

For those of you who have taken the effort to make resolutions for 2006, the end of January is the time when those resolutions can really start to slip. It's easy to come off the momentum and excitement of a new year with all sorts of resolutions that will change you for the better, but by the end of the month, those goals somehow start seeming insane and impossible.


Back in December, I announced my plans to run the Chicago Marathon to the world - my biggest resolution by far. Since then, I've been getting my game plan together so that I'll be ready to go next October.


That's easy to say, but October is a looong time to wait. With that in mind, I know that I will need more to sustain my motivation in the interim than one large goal looming at the end of the line: Running the Chicago Marathon. To stave off staleness in my goal setting, I've found it immensely helpful to set up mini-goals and contests between now and October that will keep me aiming toward my final goal without having to focus on one point at the end of a long line.

Set mini-goals

Think of small goals as though they're the markers on a bowling alley or the rungs of a ladder. They help facilitate the accomplishment of your end goal while giving you something much more manageable to aim for.

For the marathon, I've set a lot of health- and body-related mini-goals (and, maybe more importantly, mini-rewards) that I'm hoping will help me measure my progress and success as I approach the marathon.

My friend, for example, is hoping to lose a total of 15 pounds as a result of her marathon training. So, not only does she have another goal to aim for, but she's also dissected her 15-pound goal with mini-goals and rewards for every 5 pounds lost.


Take advantage of your competitive nature

If you've set up all of your mini-goals and you still don't feel that you've got the motivation you need, try setting up a contest. Of course, in order to get a contest going, you need at least two people, right?


Well, that's sort of true. If you do have a second (or third, etc.) person with whom you're working toward a common goal, then it's easy to set up contests. If not, you can still compete with yourself.

For example, not only am I currently in a two-month contest with my SO (who is also running the marathon) to see who's got the best abs by March 15th (a bit ridiculous, no?), but I also track my running times and distances from week to week so that I can compete with myself from a week ago to make sure I'm better each week than the old me was.


With my mini-goals and contests in place, my long-term goal (for which the day of reckoning is 10 months from yesterday) becomes much more manageable and less abstract. I've got smaller goals that I can hit each month and contests that can keep me motivated. The rewards that I've setup for accomplishing all of my smaller goals keep me aware of and pleased with my progress.

Set mini-rewards

But what worth do mini-goals and contests have without mini-rewards? When my friend loses her first 5 pounds from healthy eating and exercise, she's rewarding herself with one disgustingly fatty but totally delicious meal. When she accomplishes her final weightloss goal, she's rewarding herself with a shopping spree for a new wardrobe.


To keep myself going from month-to-month, I've promised myself that, as long as I keep hitting my workout goals, I'm going to reward myself with a 30-minute professional massage. The promise of that massage is a terrific motivator. The winner of the best-abs contest will be treated to dinner and a movie by the loser (no one really loses that contest, though).

Grow your goals

Another way that you can think of this is growing your goals. Since there's so much involved in the final goal of running the marathon (or whatever your big goal may be), it should be easy to dissect your goal for everything you're hoping to accomplish by achieving it.


Sit down with your resolutions and see how you can break them down and pull out some mini-goals that you'd like to accomplish on the way. If you can flesh out some of your motivations for pursuing a goal, it should become very easy to put together a list of mini-goals and rewards that will make achieving that goal seem much more manageable.

What creative ways do you use to keep yourself motivated when the thing you're working for seems a long way off? Let us know in the comments, or send an email to tips at lifehacker.com.


Adam Pash is an associate editor of Lifehacker. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.