"I just don't feel like it." We've all heard this, we've all said this or have felt this way at one time or another. But our feelings may need to be ignored if we want to accomplish our goals.
New Mindset
We must think about motivation differently if what we say we want is actually what we truly desire. An example is weight loss. Now that the new year has started, many of us are super motivated to change our physique. Bodybuilding.com shared a study that finds 73% of people who set fitness goals as a new year's resolution will give them up.
When we feel unmotivated we must tell ourselves it's NOT AN OPTION. If you make the decision to increase your profit margin by 5% then the actions necessary to reach this goal are not options, they're scheduled commitments.
Get Fired Up!
Start each day on purpose. If you worked at a coffee shop and you were opening the store tomorrow, you'd have step by step procedures to make sure everything was ready to go by the time the first customer walked in. We must also treat our personal lives the same by having a consistent process for each day.
Depending on your goal, you may begin your day listening to a sales podcast. If your goal is improving the performance of your team, you may start your day with reading a chapter in a leadership book. If you're like me, you feel very motivated when the right music is on. For some, it's going to yoga to meditate and set your daily intention. The point isn't what you do, it's doing what works for you consistently.
Just Show Up
Overthinking will kill your joy and waste the time you could've had focusing on achieving your goal and/or accomplishing your tasks. If you're a writer, you may not feel like writing today and on all accounts you're not motivated. But you sit down, you show up and you start to type.
If you're goal is to improve your physique but today you're swamped, you had an unexpected call to deal with and you're sore from yesterday’s workout, you may start to think that it will be okay to skip today's workout commitment. This is THE moment you become one of the 27% who start a new fitness goal and it becomes a part of your everyday life. Why? Because you ignore the manipulative self-talk and instead you just show up. I believe in hindsight you will say, "I'm so glad I came."
Accountability
Accountability partners are powerful resources. Personally, I thrive by having to check in with my accountability partners. And I want you to know I have multiple partners for multiple areas of life. I have a fitness coach, a business coach, a financial adviser and a spiritual mentor. When I'm talking to them I'm confronted with a.) how much progress I've made and b.) what obstacles I need to overcome.
And I never want to sound like a child who's asking their parent permission to not have to clean their room. Maybe it's my pride but I believe if you make another person or group of people (social media) aware of what you're working towards, it's unlikely that you fall of the wagon. At least I believe it's much less likely to fall too far for too long.
Recap
Friends, keep the finish line in front of you at all times. Choose to ignore feelings that don't bring you closer to your mission. Get your ass fired up each and every day. Just show up and focus on action. And finally, find someone who has your back to keep you accountable for your life and its direction.
