Where Do You Get Your Motivation?

Motivation: Where Can I Find Some?

This time of year prompts many people to set “New Year’s Resolutions”. With these resolutions often come lofty goals: the desire to “lose tons of weight”, “eat better”, and make this year “the best year ever”. Some goals are often set way too big, are to vague, or are established with no real plan on how to get to that glorious end result.

Giving up seems like the easier option.

It ‘s easier to give up because if it were easy, we’d all be in perfect shape. We’d be at our ideal physical, emotional and spiritual level of health, all be rich, and all be happy.

So where do we start?

My suggestion is to look inside yourself and find what drives you. What’s that spark, that passion, that one thing that excites you? That is where you find motivation.

Motivation is defined in Wikipedia is “the driving force which causes us to achieve goals”.

Being forced to do something you don’t want to do, or working towards a goal that someone else has set, is nearly impossible to find motivation to achieve.

So lets say you’ve found that spark. You’ve found motivation. What happens when that spark goes out? It happens all the time. You start off feeling really excited about accomplishing that seemingly impossible task. Then maybe you, or someone else convinces you that it IS indeed impossible to achieve.

And you give up.

Here’s how I deal with a situation like that. I acknowledge the negative comment that has entered my head or been directed towards me. I then disagree with that comment (yes I often have lengthy conversations with myself), and use that as more motivation or “fuel for the fire”.

If I accept every negative comment that comes my way, I’d never get out of bed in the morning. What would be the point?

When Marta and I decided to tackle a cross-Canada fundraiser (that involved me cycling a distance of over 4500 km, into the wind, wearing a 40-lb weight vest, and completed it in 31 days), we had many people try to talk us out of it. We were told it was “impossible”.  As it turns out, we ended up having much more support than we originally thought we would. Having a letter to open each day with words of encouragement definitely added positive fuel to the fire. Being with the love of my life every step of the way helped too. But when I was on the bike, it was just me and my brain. I often found myself repeating the words, “I think I can. I know I can. I will. I will.” In cadence with how fast I was pedaling. This became my mantra. (If this is the first you’ve heard about our fundraiser from 2008, check out: www.biketobeatobesity.com).

Here are 10 tips/ideas that help to keep the motivation burning strong:

1. Set realistic goals – Maybe you want to run a marathon. If you’ve never put on a pair of running shoes before, chances are it’s going to take some time to achieve that goal. Start with smaller races.
2. Develop a plan to achieve goals – It’s great to have long-term goals. But there’s a reason why they are “long-term”. Creating smaller goals that lead you towards the larger goal is recommended. It’s ok to start slow.
3. Measureable goals – Being able to measure success is important. Try not to let failure get you down. This can be positive, as you can recognize that something needs to change in order to keep you on track.
4. Positive self-talk - Replace negative thoughts and negative talk with positivity. Replace “I can’t” with “I can”, and “I should” with “I will”. Focusing on past successes is also a way to keep positive.
5. Vision board – Making a board with pictures of things you want to obtain/achieve and places you want to go will help keep you focused.
6. Meditation – 5-10 minutes of meditation at the beginning of every day can help give you a clearer focus on what you need to accomplish that day, as well as help you deal with stress.
7. Journaling – Recording thoughts, ideas, and events can be a great way to keep records, generate new ideas, and allow you an opportunity to reflect.
8. Inspirational quotes/calendar – Lance Armstrong’s quote, “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever” was something that I read every morning when I was training for the cross-Canada cycle.
9. Healthy rewards complimentary to the goal – Rewarding yourself with a fast-food burger after achieving a weight-loss milestone is not complimentary. Perhaps a massage for those hard-worked muscles is a better idea.

10. Get out of your comfort zone – It’s easy to be complacent. But that can lead to maintaining (in other words, never achieving your goals). Getting outside of your comfort zone can (and should) be scary. But it also means you’re one step closer to achieving that huge goal.

Look inside yourself. The motivation is there. You just need to find ways to keep the spark lit.