Lacking motivation? Our top three actions to help you get your groove back.
Motivation. It is certainly one of the biggest and most consistent challenges for our clients and lots of our girlfriends in seeking out better health. As we all know – motivation comes and goes. Some days we are feeling full of beans and ready to take on the world… other days we want to curl up on the couch under a doona, watching Netflix and eating popcorn!
Some days it really does just seems to require too much effort to get out of bed to exercise; to prepare and cook a nutritious meal for you and your family at the end of a long day; to spend some time ‘switched off’ and being mindful, each day; or to give our kids some precious one-on-one time each day. We know that these things are so important and we really want to be including these things in our everyday, but often, we are all too busy, too tired, too stressed to be able to break our daily routine to do something positive (and important) for our own health. And sometimes, we have just lost the motivation to do them.
We often complain that successful people (or in this case people who are successfully ‘healthy’) are just SO motivated – and if only we had some of that motivation to keep up our healthy habits. But often, those successful people no longer require motivation (at least not on the daily basis that you might expect) because their actions have now become habits. Habits are what keep us going and you don’t need motivation to have good habits.
If you find your motivation ebbing and flowing (or flat-out dried up!), never fear! Try some of these tips/ tools to help you DO the things that you so desperately want to do, but just don’t ever seem to find the time for. We look at why ACTION might be more important than MOTIVATION because it is really only consistent, daily action that can affect change.
FIND YOUR ‘WHY’
We are all motivated by different things. For me, health is now really about having energy and feeling vital. I want to be able to have the energy to ‘show up’ for my work, my kids, and my husband, each day. To run and play with the kids when the urge takes us (and to still beat them in a sprint race if I wanted to J)! But for you – better health might mean feeling better placed to manage your anxiety. Or to be at the top of your game at work. Or to be able to run 5km. To give you more headspace. To bound out of bed full of beans, every day. Or to live to 95!
You need to understand WHY you are doing something for you to fully commit to doing it. It really doesn’t matter WHAT your WHY is, but you do need to dive deep and find it. Because when times get tough and you might want to quit – you will need to come back to this. When it’s cold and dark in the morning and I feel tired and am deciding whether to get up and run or to roll over and snooze – I always come back to my WHY. I know that by getting up – I will feel better, have more energy, than if I stole that extra half hour sleep. My WHY helps me get it done.
FOCUS ON JUST GETTING IT DONE – HOWEVER BIG OR SMALL
For lots of women (particularly pre-babies!) being ‘healthy’ was a bit easier – they used to exercise at a high level regularly, they went to yoga, they had massages and were incredibly diligent about eating the most nutritious and delicious meals they could – because… well, they could!
Post babies, our health takes on a whole different look. In a past life, we could focus on achievement, challenging ourselves, really immersing in pursuits of different sorts and spending LOTS of time to achieve a certain level of accomplishment. Most mothers (particularly of young babies), are so far from being able to indulge in this kind of pursuit of health and fitness for a period, that they literally give up. To them it is “all or none” (read more about how this is keeping you from your best health here). They are not interested if it can’t be at the level that they were before. BUT, this all-or-none attitude can be sabotaging your opportunity to realise better health… sure, your capacity to pursue good health might be a little different to what it was before, but you are still entitled to feel better than you do today, right?
When we talk health and fitness – we want to remind you. To feel better, you really don’t have to be the best/ fittest/ fastest/ strongest/ healthiest – you just need to do something. While we are certainly not suggesting that you need to resign yourself to a lifetime of non-achievement or give up on your goals, we are suggesting that in place of an all-or-none mentality – just keep going forward. Some weeks this might be a little and some weeks it could be a lot. The important thing is your direction.
Research has shown us that a mere 15-20 mins of exercise each day can have enormous benefits, for both your physical and mental health. Now 15 mins might seem so insignificant to you, particularly compared to the 1 hour that you used to spend in the gym, but, let’s do the math. If you did that every day for a week you have done 105 mins of exercise that you wouldn’t have otherwise done. If you did that even 5 days a week, every week for a year, that is 3,900 minutes (a whopping 65 hours!) of exercise that you have done that wouldn’t have, had you dismissed the idea of 15 mins of exercise a day.
The same concept applies for nutrition/ for rest/ for recovery. Deciding to drink two litres of water per day might seem silly. If, however you did this consistently every day for the year – imagine how you might look and feel in one year’s time? Same goes for mediation – think that 5 mins a day sounds like it is barely worth doing? Imagine after a month, 6 months, one year of doing this…. Do you think that you would still feel the same? Your goal posts might have shifted as your capacity to allocate to these things has changed, but don’t dwell on it. Readjust your expectations of what you can/ can’t and should be doing. Just commit to something, however big or small and get it done. The consistent little things, all make a difference to your health. Don’t forget that an avalanche once started out as a small snowflake – you never know where your small little action might take you.
FIND YOUR TRIBE
We always talk about finding “your tribe”. Your support crew. Your cheer squad. And when it comes to health – we are talking girls with similar goals/ interests and aspirations. Finding a friend/ group/ partner to exercise with or be accountable to; to motivate each other with new recipes and family meal ideas; and to help support each other through the challenges of modern life. The role that your tribe plays in your overall health (not just your fitness) must not be under-estimated.
Being a part of a group of girls that began by meeting once a week to train, was invaluable for me, in returning to exercise after each baby. It made me accountable (someone is waiting for you!), the group dynamic motivated me to work harder, and it provided me with a much-needed weekly, social interaction. The biggest benefit however, that came out of that group for me was not only the exercise/ fitness side of things but more importantly, the support and friendship that grew out of this group. These girls have helped me grow through some of the incredible challenges of ‘being a mother’ sometimes by what was said and sometimes just by being there.
So, your tribe might be a group. It might be one person. It might be a family member (or three!). It might be an online community. Whatever form your tribe might take – we suggest you find it! It cannot be underestimated at how far this simple tool will go to keeping you motivated and accountable on your health journey and you never know, if you are lucky – you might be rewarded with much more than just a training partner!
Good luck girls – let us know how you like these tools and if you want more, please drop us a line. We know the challenges and we know that they are REAL because we have been there (and to be honest, we still face them!). We are here to help – so let us know what you need or would like to see more of.
Stay healthy,
Some more reading if you are interested:
www.success.com A website publishing articles on how to achieve more in all aspects from Personal Development, and Business to Well-Being. If you want more strategies to succeed – this site has a host of them!
