“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” - Jim Rohn
I need to be honest with you, I don’t believe in New Year's Resolutions. Nothing magically happens in the universe during the month of January that will make you thinner, more successful, or more likely to reach your goals. The motivation that you actually need to set goals and crush them is found within you - all year long. Mindset, resilience, and determination are the keys.
Do you want to know what you can do to get and stay motivated?
Below are some straightforward steps to support you on your journey of positive life changes.
1) Motivation Diet
Is it possible to be positive and optimistic all the time? NOPE!! We call know that life has a way of incorporating obstacles on your path to ensure that you are determined to continue. Motivation isn’t supposed to be constant, it tends to fluctuate and therefore you can start to feel like you are continually ’working at keeping it on the high end of the scale. It can be exhausting but if you keep yourself on track and set micro-goals (either daily or weekly quick wins), then you will have many more UP days than DOWN. Just like you need to eat food every day for physical energy, you also need to incorporate daily motivational tools such as affirmations, positive quotes, meditations, etc. to feed your mental and spiritual health.
2) Know Your Motivational Baseline
Incorporate motivational material into your daily routine. Read books or magazines, and listen to motivational podcasts, TedTalks, and or guided meditations. Check out the Chapters or Amazon to find yourself some inspirational books, poems, or workbooks. If you have absolutely no time in your crazy life at the moment to pick up and read, then audiobooks are a fantastic alternative. I love audiobooks, as they enable me to multitask. On a hot summer day, you can find me in my rubber boots punching my lawn mower and yelling “hell yeah!!” and pumping my fists. My neighbors now love me as they have now figured out that I have earbuds in and have not gone kooky.
3) Create a Healthy Lifestyle
Regularly exercising or moving your body, allows your body to work efficiently. When you move your body, you add fuel (positive chemicals) to your mind too. Your brain gets a release from the stress that you may have been unconsciously carrying around. Set aside 30 minutes a day to move your body. It can be divided into 3 ten minute slots if that works better in your routine. I set aside my lunch hour for 30 minutes on the treadmill, going up and down my stairs or walking Happy, and then the next 30 minutes eating lunch with my bottle of water by my side to ensure I am well hydrated. time each week to exercise your body. You'll be more productive when you return to work, tackle your afternoon tasks and stay alert at those end-of-day meetings.
4) Enjoy Being Alive
Explore activities that bring you real joy, figure out what excites you, or enable you to develop your talents. Feeling good about yourself builds self-confidence and promotes positive emotions. When you enjoy the activity that you are doing you tend to be successful with less effort. With each milestone, your self-esteem flourishes and you begin to feel that results come naturally.
5) Frequently Revisiting Your Goals
SMART Goals should be clearly defined with concrete action plans that include your target dates or self-inflicted deadlines. Whether you write down your goals in a notebook or capture them via images on a vision board, revisit your goals as often as possible, Put the vision board in a place you pass by several times a day, keep your notebook on your desk open to the page of what you want to accomplish. I am very visual so I love doing vision boards but I also leave sticky notes on my bathroom mirror and in my kitchen cabinets. You will begin to develop a strong relationship with your needs and desire to reach your goals. Your subconscious mind will steer your daily activities, actions, and plans for attaining these goals. The small steps you take today toward completing those small tasks will lead to BIG accomplishments in a few weeks or months.
Every step forward matters.
In order to make continuous progress and to move forward in life to navigate toward your goals, you need to keep your motivation level high. Unless you start ACTING NOW and applying the steps outlined above, believing in yourself, and then let the results inspire you!
Motivation is, as the word itself suggests, a MOTIVE for ACTION. Setting up a personal motivation plan in one or two sessions with a life coach can guide you through the self-reflection process and highlight your internal motivators. Say for example that you need help taking the first step towards your goal and have some accountability to keep you on track.
Inhale. Exhale.
