EP262 Conquer Mid-Year Slumps: Stay Energized Now
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast, the podcast where we crush our goals and live boldly. I'm your host, Sarah Mayer. And today we're tackling a topic that I'm pretty sure you can relate to overcoming the mid year slump. As we reach the halfway point of the year, it's not uncommon to feel a dip in motivation and energy.
Sara Mayer: Happened to me, but fear not, because today we're going to discuss the strategies to help you stay motivated and energized. And I'll be sharing some personal anecdotes and practical advice to help you tongue twisted today. And this will help you maintain momentum and help you crush your goals.
Sara Mayer: So let's get started. So let's first start talking about the mid year slump and why this happens. And many of us start the year. During New Year's with a burst of energy, excitement, and we have a lot of goals and we have some enthusiasm and [00:01:00] we set ambitious goals and we tend to dive in head first, but as the months go on, you may know the initial excitement can wane.
Sara Mayer: Maybe obstacles have come into place and we might face these unexpected challenges or obstacles. And our progress may not be as quick as we hoped. And we can start to feel burned out or discouraged. So the first thing is recognizing that you're in a slump is the first step to overcoming it. It's important to acknowledge your feelings and understand it's a natural part of the goal setting process or journey, as I like to call it.
Sara Mayer: And everyone experiences slumps at some point. It doesn't mean you're failing. It just means it's time to recalibrate and find new ways to stay motivated. Yep. So how do we overcome the mid year slump? So here are some strategies that may help you regain your [00:02:00] motivation. The first one. Hopefully you did this during your goal setting where you really dug deep and thought about your why.
Sara Mayer: Why do I want this? Why is this important to me? Why will this make me have or feel the way I want to feel? And so it's important to remind yourself why you set these goals in the first place. Why is this truly important and what inspired you? And I'm going to take a step back really quick. It's okay if money.
Sara Mayer: Is your why or freedom or financial freedom. Some people, they shy away from saying, I want to make money. Because they think that's not worthy or that's not a deep why strip that away. Maybe when you set your, why you really didn't say why you wanted it. Was there something you were hoping to achieve? Was there something [00:03:00] you hope it are hoping to do?
Sara Mayer: Is it a legacy you want to leave for yourself? For your family or something like that. So sometimes reconnecting with your initial motivation can reignite your passion, but sometimes you need to really rethink that. Why was this important? And then it's time to set some fresh intentions. Take a moment to set new intentions for the second half of the year.
Sara Mayer: Reflect on what you've learned so far and use that insight to refine your goals. So setting fresh intentions can give you a renewed sense of purpose. Now, I just talked about goal setting. And for those of you watching on YouTube, I'm looking for my journal that I do have, Driven to Succeed, a goal oriented journal for high achievers.
Sara Mayer: This journal does have prompts for you to really think about your goals. And then you can write based on that prompt. It is a bunch of blank [00:04:00] space. So maybe one prompt generates five pages and maybe another prompt only generates one. You can go to sarahmayer. com and then go to favorite things. Check out the Amazon store.
Sara Mayer: It has all my journals. So if you're looking to journal, that's a great one. Next, we need to break down our goals into smaller steps. So large goals can feel overwhelming, especially when you're in a slump. So it's really about breaking them down into smaller, more manageable steps. And celebrating each win along the way to build momentum.
Sara Mayer: That's super important. Especially the fact that you don't need to know all the steps. You just need to know the next few. That's where you start. And then you want to change your routine. Sometimes a change in your routine can make a huge difference. So try working on your goals at a different time of day.
Sara Mayer: Try. Putting them in your schedule. Try changing your workspace when you work on your goals. Or maybe you [00:05:00] introduce new habits that can boost your productivity and energy. And this is not a sales pitch, but they just work their way in. Habit tracker. I also have a habit tracker. Maybe you track how often you work on your goals.
Sara Mayer: morning, afternoon, evening. Many people set morning and evening routines, but they don't think about the middle of the day. Next, it's time to connect with your support system. So many times we work on our goals in isolation and sometimes that's for a reason. Maybe you don't have the most supportive friends or family, but it's important to connect.
Sara Mayer: Connecting with a support system, a mentor, an accountability partner, a group of friends, somebody who's done this before and sharing your challenges and successes with others can provide valuable encouragement and accountability. Take care of yourself. Self care is truly critical for maintaining motivation.
Sara Mayer: And this isn't about just popping a bath bomb in the bathtub and calling that [00:06:00] self care. You need to make sure you're getting enough rest. You're eating well, taking breaks when needed, And really taking care of your physical and mental wellbeing that can directly impact your ability to stay motivated towards your goals.
Sara Mayer: So it could be taking a moment and celebrating yourself, breaking down how you talk to yourself. And then we talk about this a lot, reflecting on your past success. So look back at what you've already accomplished this year or in your career or in your life and go back to you did a good file or your accomplishment board.
Sara Mayer: I talked about this on another episode, you can have a vision board for what you've accomplished. And that's a reminder of that. Of the fact that you can do difficult things and you are successful. You may be a beginner in what you're doing right now or struggling in what you're doing right now, but this could give you the confidence to keep pushing forward.
Sara Mayer: Okay. So let me share a little personal story about [00:07:00] overcoming a slump. It wasn't necessarily mid year, but a few years ago, I set a big goal for myself to build a nonprofit. And to make a bigger impact and to possibly build schools in other countries, because we know that education is one of the barriers to success for women.
Sara Mayer: And I don't know about you, this I went to dinner with a bunch of friends and I have friends who give out jobs. And we all decided that this was a shared vision and that we would be able to make a bigger impact if we pooled our resources. And that's really what nonprofits need, financial resources to do what they want to do to make the impact that they want to make.
Sara Mayer: And I have a friend who gives out jobs and I got the job of filling out the nonprofit paperwork. And if you have ever filled out nonprofit paperwork, it's very lengthy. It's 276, very complicated questions. And. I would open it [00:08:00] up on my desk and I would look at it and I would get to question one, the name, luckily we had already decided the name.
Sara Mayer: And then I would get to question two, address, and I was stuck because I didn't know, should I put my address? Do we need to open a P. O. box? How do we open a P. O. box if we're not a business yet? It spiraled, so I would put that paperwork away, I'd find something else to do, I'd clean my desk, I'd rearrange my bookshelf, I was stuck, and instead of reaching out to help, or going to a question that's easier, like they tell you on a test, I just let it get me stuck.
Sara Mayer: In a fustle and it took me, I don't even know if a fustle is a word, but it took me six months and I finally had to put it on my calendar and say, you're going to stare at that application until you have completed at least part of it until this timer's up 45 minutes. And I. knew in my heart of hearts that there were [00:09:00] millions of people probably that have started a nonprofit and they didn't get stuck when doing this.
Sara Mayer: So it was really important to me to do this. That was my why. And I needed to go back to my why. And I had to reflect on my progress and say, have a little pep talk with myself. You're a very smart person. You figured out things tougher than this before. Why is this letting you get stuck? And it was really because I was a beginner.
Sara Mayer: So months later, fast forward, we got our nonprofit status and now I think it's eight years later. I'm not sure the exact thing. We are building a school in Guatemala and I'm super excited about that. And you could check that out. Go to joyridesociety. com. Or it might be dot org. Check it out. We're very excited and we'd love to have you join us on our journey.
Sara Mayer: So I want to dive into some practical advice for maintaining momentum because your story may be similar to mine where you got stuck. So the first one is daily affirmations. You can [00:10:00] start your day with positive affirmations and remind yourself of the strengths and progress you've made, not only on this task, but other tasks.
Sara Mayer: And that really sets the tone for the day. And next it's all about visualizing your success. So take a few minutes and visualize yourself achieving your goals. Imagine the details, the emotions, and the sense of accomplishment. And this can be a powerful motivator. Create a vision board. A vision board with images and words that represent your goals, not the magazine that you flipped through and said, Oh, this looks good.
Sara Mayer: Maybe I want that. This is where you actually decide what you want and then go find the images that represent that. And if you place it somewhere that you see often, it's a reminder of what you're working towards. We talk about this a lot. We have big, bold goals and those can be lofty, dreamy.
Sara Mayer: They don't need to be smart goals, but you need to set some short term objectives, the [00:11:00] steps that you are going to take in order to achieve those goals. And those need to be steps that have measurements and they allow you to put a deadline on it. And that's where you can track your progress. A great way to track your progress.
Sara Mayer: My goal journal. And when you see your progress in black and white, it can be incredibly motivating and can help you stay on course. So it doesn't need to be fancy. Open up an Excel workbook, maybe open up a task planner, like a sauna or something like that, and start to document your journey. And then next up, reward yourself.
Sara Mayer: So establish a reward system for achieving those milestones. And then this would be contradictory or contradict what I said earlier, but it's also important to stay flexible. Life happens, be open to adjusting your goals, the time you're working on your goals and your strategies. It doesn't need to [00:12:00] be so rigid that it's not fun.
Sara Mayer: You're on a goal journey. I encourage you to really overcome the mid year slump. And in order to do that, it's about recognizing the natural ebbs and flows of your motivation and finding strategies to keep you moving forward. Revisit your why. Set intentions, break down your goals, change your routine, find new inspiration, connect with a support system, an accountability group, or hire a consultant like me and take care of yourself and reflect on your past successes.
Sara Mayer: But remember that slumps are natural. They're a part. of the journey, but they don't have to describe you. So with the right mindset and strategies, you can overcome them, finish the year strong. If that's what your goal is, it may be your goal is more than a year, but you can do this. [00:13:00] All right. Thanks for joining me today on the bold goal crusher podcast.
Sara Mayer: If you found this episode helpful, please hit that subscribe button, share it with somebody else that might benefit from this. If you're not watching me on YouTube, Why not please subscribe to the YouTube channel, the bold goal crusher, and keep pushing forward because you can crush your goals and everything that gets in the way without working double time.
Sara Mayer: So let's get to it.
