The first month of 2021 has gone and passed super fast. How is the world feeling? How are YOU feeling? Hesitant to answer that?
Not to worry. It is, of course, the dead of winter – winter in a year of social distancing, nonetheless. It is no joke, and should also be no secret that winter blues, anxiety, depression, COVID emotions and much more play a part of our daily lives. (more to come about that in next week’s blog.)
Managing our motivation is a serious struggle some days. Whether you are struggling to feel motivated towards your own career, your household chores, family life, daily tasks or your wellness overall, you are NOT alone. We are all in this together. Let me start by sharing my story with you. From there, I’ll share my top tips for Motivation.
Hopefully you at least feel motivated to continue reading this blog though, because I am going to give you the top 5 thoughts I have towards managing our own motivation, from within.
- Goal Oriented Habits. Motivation doesn’t come naturally. It doesn’t just arrive at your doorstep, knocking, asking to be welcomed in like an old friend. It doesn’t show up daily. It may not even show up weekly or monthly. Motivation comes along every once in a while as goal oriented habits are created and put to action in our days. Developing goal oriented habits of course, are not easy. I could write an entire blog just on that. However, if you are thinking about creating 3-5 new goal oriented that will develop into motivation, I suggest waking up an hour earlier to live an hour longer, creating a power hour somewhere in your day, drinking water throughout your day, eating healthy energetic breakfast, and smiling at yourself daily to get started on your motivation.
- Routines/Rituals. Creating routines and rituals, whichever you like to refer to them as, take a little practice and personalizing to your lifestyle. But, once routines/rituals are established, it is really motivating to keep going and feel accomplished each day. Obviously in my power hour, I talk about morning routines. But I also very strongly believe in creating daily routines – like knowing when you plan on drinking your water, fitting in your exercise, and when you’re taking your walk break, lunch break, and so forth. How do routines/rituals relate to managing motivating? Well, regardless of which rituals you start implementing, it gets motivating to feel the inner change happening in the mindset and the brain overall. Personal development sources will often tell you the importance of creating morning and day time routines. But I also very firmly believe in an evening routine as well. How you finish one day, determines how you start your next day in your mindset and your motivation. If you can create a calming routine for your evening, such as drinking a tea, turning off technology and lights, reading a book and feeling mellow, you will start your next day with less stress and greater amounts of motivation. Routines and rituals will generate positive energy flow.
- Consistency: Finding consistency stems from routines. Once you determine a morning, day, and evening routine that works for you and you repeat it several times, consistency gets easier. Once you’ve repeated your routines 3-5 times, you know you can do it for a week. Once you’ve done it for a week, you know you can do it for a month. Once you’re consistent for a month, you’ve really circled back to implementing goal oriented habits. Days when it is really hard to feel motivated within, you have to rely on your consistency, your calendars, your checklists to keep going and keep strong. With consistency, you have that extra push that giving up isn’t an option.
- Discipline: Along the lines of being consistent in habits and routines, discipline will eventually come knocking as well. I know some days you really want a friend or coach or gym buddy to give you an extra push. But the reality is that motivation has to come from within. And when motivation starts to fade, discipline takes a stronger appearance, reminding you of why you started. Whether you’re not motivated to get your daily exercise in, or you’re not motivated to stay hydrated, or not motivated to continue your meal routines, discipline reminds you that you have a plan of action, you have routines, you have developed habits and that it is important to stick to those. As I said, that discipline will come knocking; it will ask if you’ve drunk your water, got your exercise in, eating healthy. It will be on YOU to answer the knock with an honest response and keep up on those consistent routines we talked about.
- Community & Camaraderie: While this whole blog has been about finding and generating your own motivation from within, the reality is that the motivation is easier to manage when doing it with someone. Community and camaraderie from others will absolutely help. In a world that has physical distanced and virtually come together, it is fairly easy to find buddies, at least in an online setting. So, finding the community and accountability buddies can not be an excuse. We have adapted to our new world to sharing our goals and ambitions on the internet in community “tribe” like settings. If you have not found your niche, your community – do let me know and I will absolutely get you set up with the community we’ve been working with together in our facebook world through facebook groups such as “Actively Ageless” and “Wellness Workshop.”