My husband and I were discussing our favorite iPhone games. We narrowed it down to those that require hand-eye coordination vs. those that require logic . I much prefer logic games that don’t have a time limit. I get easily frustrated at games that are timed, and often give up before I get good enough to develop any skill. There have been a few games, however, that gave me enough positive feedback that I was willing to stick with them long enough until I could really excel at the game.
It got me thinking about getting organized. Some of the people who contact me are hoping to go from no skill to excelling, without taking the time to put in the practice. This just isn’t realistic. I can’t turn someone into an organized person in one or two quick sessions or by virtue of a new filing system. Part of my job is to make the learning curve tolerable, until my clients start to experience the thrill of doing well on their own.
The things that help me to sustain motivation are to remind myself of why my goal is important, and to have objective evidence that I am making progress, even if the goal still seems far away. Experience has taught me that small steps add up to big results, so as long as I can feel successful with those small steps, I’m usually willing to stick with something until the big results are tangible.
What keeps you motivated during the early phases of learning a new skill, when basic competency, let alone mastery, feels like it will be impossible to achieve?