Last night’s torrential rain seemed to push half of our DrivenWoman group members off the course as last minute cancellations poured in. For a native Finn who used to ski (cross country) to primary school in -25C there are very few natural catastrophes that would warrant an excuse not to keep moving towards my goal.

You tell yourself “Oh, there is always another day!”. Sure there is. What’s the rush? “I just couldn’t possibly do it today because…” And life continues exactly as it has always been, safely repeating its usual patterns. And you keep dreaming. Life will start surely somewhere in the future.

And you scream, louder and louder: “But I want it! I want it now!” If only someone invented a magical tool, a wonderful pill that you could swallow one morning and – hups – you would be transformed into your new life!

No such luck.

There is only one way to steer yourself into more productive and fulfilling life and it is called ‘work’. This beloved baby has many names, such as ‘pain’, ‘sweat’, ‘effort’ and ‘tears’.

There are always life’s circumstances that will push you off the course. But you have got to keep pushing back!

So what can help in the moment of despair when disruption in public transport system or broken tire seems to be just too much for you to keep going?

1) Remind yourself why you are doing it

To keep yourself motivated you should work on making it absolutely clear for yourself why you are doing what the things you think will take you towards your goal. Understanding of who you are and who you want to become is paramount. Stick a picture of yourself today and a picture of a future goal (someone who is living the life you want) to the wall if you have to, or keep it between your notebook. But make it real in your mind every time you try to give yourself excuses.

2) Align everything towards your goal

If you like doing exercise but it is not linked to a ‘bigger picture’ goal it is easy to drop a gym appointment. Align everything you do from sports to nutrition, from how you allocate your ‘free time’ to the people you spend your time with towards your goal. If there are activities that doesn’t support the life you want to build for yourself, then drop them.

3) Create discipline

Discipline is not fun. It sounds boring and mind numbing. But quite opposite happens. When you reach the ‘brushing your teeth’ level of discipline and almost automation then you free up capacity for new tasks and ideas in your life. Soon you simply can’t miss an appointment for any mediocre reason. To start, pick just one thing that you promise yourself you are going to stick to (every day/ every week/ every month) no matter what.

4) Don’t let other people push you around

Especially women have a tendency to attend everyone else’s tasks and needs first and when it comes the time to do something for themselves the daily circumstances become too overwhelming and everything stops. We must build stamina to keep going until we have done something that keeps us moving and mentally nourished and not just keep feeding others. Every day.

We have the magic pill inside, it’s called effort.

Just keep pushing that boat, baby. It’s the only way!

~ Miisa