Even more than Jan 1st, the start of a new school year was the time of year when I’d make big plans for how I was going to change in some meaningful way.

How I was going to practice more diligently. Or take better notes in class. Or go for a walk in the park. Or eat a hearty salad once a week instead of a dozen two-for-$1 tacos on Taco Tuesday.

As you can probably guess, things usually didn’t go as planned. I’d often lose the motivation, get sidetracked with other things, or a friend would discover that mixing Sanka with the cafeteria’s vanilla soft serve was awesome, and my plans would go out the window.

And while it’s true that we don’t want to be dependent on motivation alone to achieve our goals, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if there were an easy way to boost our motivation a bit, no?

So…is there a way to amplify our motivation, and make ourselves more likely to take action and do the things that would get us closer to achieving our goals for the coming year?