Here’s a post from a few years ago.
It’s a subject that’s always relevant, and that I coach on regularly.
So I hope you get what you need from it.
This morning I woke up at 5:30.
Last night, before going to bed, I planned to get up this morning, bright and early, to do my work-out.
I knew what I wanted to get done (I wrote it down), why I was doing it (Spartan race this Saturday!), where I was going (the park across the street), and what I was going to wear (I took out my shorts, tank top, and socks last night).
But despite good planning, the truth was I didn’t “feel like” working out this morning.
My bed was comfy, and I hadn’t slept super well. I needed more sleep, so I should stay in bed, right?
Luckily, I recognized that cop out excuse before it was too late.
I recognized it as an excuse because I’ve used it before.
I’m very well acquainted with the “feel like it” part of me… She loves ease and comfort, and can be very convincing when I’m not paying close attention.
So somehow I got out of bed, had a little to eat, and laced up my shoes. I was out the door by 6:15.
How did I do it?
I was motivated.
But where does that motivation come from?
How can you overcome the comfort of a warm bed, or the busy-ness of your routine, or the temptation of few drinks on a Friday night when you know you’ve gotta get up early Saturday morning for a run?
I believe there are 5 crucial steps to building motivation into your life.
And you definitely need motivation to do anything you want to achieve that happens to be outside of your current routine.
So here they are:
1. Know What You Want, and Why You Want It
Do you know what you really want?
Maybe you’ve thought things like “I’d really like to travel to Europe”, or “It would be great to lose 30 pounds”, or “It would be cool to live in Australia.”
But are these deep desires for you?
You’ll know if something’s a deep desire if it keeps coming up in your thoughts, and although it feels a little scary, you know that once you achieve it, you’ll feel great.
Like when I had a deep desire to become a personal trainer and then a life coach.
It was a scary departure from what was normal for me, but I knew it was something I just had to do. And now I’m so happy I took that path.
So, once you’ve defined what you want, you must answer the question “Why do I want it?”
If you can’t answer this question, or the answers don’t feel good, then you shouldn’t pursue this desire.
But if your answer is emotional, passionate, and straight from the heart, then you owe it to yourself to go for it.
Six months ago I decided I wanted to sign up to do the Spartan Super event.
It’s 13km of running up steep hills, climbing ropes and walls, crawling in the mud under barbed wire, carrying heavy buckets of rocks over long distances, and, possibly, walking through fire.
Sounds like fun, eh?
When I thought about doing this event, I’ll be honest, it did kind of scare me (and still does.)
But then I knew that completing it would make me feel strong and confident and proud of myself. So, I definitely wanted to do it.
But why?
Because challenging myself makes me feel alive, and finishing a challenge like this tells me that if I’m capable of doing this, then I’m capable of accomplishing pretty much anything.
Also, I love the way I feel when I’m in great shape, and training for this event has whipped me into the best shape I’ve been in for years.
2. Constantly Remind Yourself of WHY
We all have as least one strong desire, but with the routine of daily life we tend to forget about it, and then we don’t take much, if any, action to bring it into reality.
But if there’s something you REALLY want, then you have to plan to do something to get closer to it every day.
And to remember to do that, you need to remind yourself to take daily action because – no matter how strong your desire – the momentum of your daily routine can be significantly stronger, and has the power to bulldoze it’s way over any desire.
Here’s an analogy…
Imagine you’re trying to get into the sole entrance of an arena after a packed concert (this is your desire.) But, as you try to enter, you encounter a strong and steady current of crazy fans on their way out (this is the momentum of your routine).
You need a strong reason WHY to push you past the crowds.
Unfortunately, as smart as we are, we don’t always remember our reasons WHY when we most need them.
So, what helps is to place reminders of your desire and goals EVERYWHERE to keep you on track.
Use Post-Its, computer backgrounds, voice messages to yourself, pop-up alerts on your cell, your friends calling you,… as many ways as you can think of, if it’s really important to you.
3. Recruit Support!
Next, you need to share your dream and goals with someone you know will be supportive of them.
This could be a spouse, a friend, a co-worker, or even someone you can hire like a life coach.
The reason you do this is accountability.
A lot of us need to feel accountable to someone other than ourselves in order to get something done. Somehow we feel more compelled to do something when we have to report it to someone else.
It’s important to be clear with this person about what you want from them in terms of support.
Do you want them to call you every day to follow up with what you said you’d do? Or do you want them to check in once a week? Or do you want them to actually participate in this adventure with you?
Having someone on your side is one of the biggest predictors of success in achieving anything, so make sure you recruit the right people.
4. Take a Step Every Day (even if it’s smaller than you planned)
To stay motivated and focused, you need to do something every day towards your dream and goals.
So, for example, if you had planned a 3K run for today (goal) in preparation for your 10K event (dream) coming up in June, you must do it.
And even if you really don’t “feel like it”, you can’t let yourself off the hook.
At the very least, you’ve to commit to getting part of it done.
Get out there are do something.
Doing nothing will give you nothing tomorrow, nothing next week, and nothing next year.
Doing something, however, will give you something.
Doing something, anything, every day, will give you a lot of something down the road.
It doesn’t matter how small, you just need to do it consistently to stay in the game.
Some days you may find you have the energy and enthusiasm to do more than you planned, and those are magic days.
But if that’s not your reality today, then just do what you can.
To help me put this in perspective, I do what Tony Robbins calls the “rocking chair test”.
I imagine that I’m in my nineties, sitting in my rocking chair, and thinking back on my life. And I ask my future self “Will I regret not taking this step today?”
The truth is, that when you get to the end of your life, pretty much your only regrets will be about the things DIDN’T do.
So get it done today.
5. Expect That You Still Won’t Feel Like It Sometimes
No matter how much you want something, you may still sometimes not “feel like” doing the work to get there.
So you need to expect that this feeling will show up, and you need to plan for it.
Everyone encounters the “I don’t feel like it” feeling at some point.
Did Thomas Edison feel like trying over and over again to perfect the light bulb? Not a chance. He had to keeping pushing himself to get back up every time he failed.
What helped motivate him was a deep knowing that he would succeed, and a desire to make it happen.
Do Olympic hopefuls feel like training every day? Nope. There are some days they’d just like to roll over and go back to sleep. But they have an intense desire to get to the pinnacle of their sport, so they get up and put in the work.
You’ll never “feel like it” 100% of the time, no matter how wonderful your dreams and goals are.
Expect it, and know nothing has gone wrong.
Do you struggle with motivation and “feeling like it”?
As you can see, we all struggle with motivation sometimes.
But it’s important to notice if it’s a pattern.
And if it is, decide on a strategy to break that pattern.
Choose one of the things, or all of the things above.
And put them to work.
You can do this.
Because you’ve generated motivation before.
Keep moving forward,
Debbie
P.S. If you need help “feeling like it” so you can get important things done, I can help. To find out more, just send me an email (debbie@debbieharbeccoaching.com) or book a consultation. Let’s do this!