The drive for motivation - what motivates me

The drive of motivation is a key element to achieve success. How often have you set a goal for yourself and find yourself not even crossing the starting line. A good example we all can relate to is when you set out a goal to start exercising and a few days later you find yourself making excuses to no one other than yourself.  This is where motivation is a mental game of persuading the mind and heart, to balance the goal ahead. The good thing is that this lack of motivation does not have to get in your way of achieving your goals, as I will now give you a tip that has worked for me, to get out and live your dreams.

Motivation can come naturally as it mostly does when we do what we love and work toward something we so badly want with both our heart and mind. But in cases such as my example above, to live healthy, be active or lose weight we sometimes wish we could just snap our fingers and it will all be done.

Whether it is a short term or long term goal it does take time and most importantly it requires a lot of effort from yourself. Once you have realised there is no easy one day miracles, you are halfway there.

The next step is to find the balance of your drive, we all have felt motivated before, even if only for a moment – maybe that moment was when you said to yourself you’ll start jogging the next day and set your alarm to get up an hour earlier.

Now go and analyse your state of mind during that specific moment of feeling motivated. Analyse the feeling, the thought and even the body language that your drive has brought over you. Then except those negative thoughts that is already starting to make excuses for you. Those thoughts the next morning when you are woken by an early alarm and you suddenly forgot the need for going jogging when you allow all excuses to persuade you to stay in bed.

Why except the negative thoughts around your goal you might ask? Well this is the key to motivating yourself. If your mind knows its thoughts and excuses, the mind can prepare your feelings, thoughts and body language to turn all your negative thoughts around. How? You hold the power to control your mind and by preparing the mind with answers to each excuse up front, you obtain a balance of full control in your heart and mind.

So was it because you are not a morning person, you are tired from too little sleep, it is cold outside…the excuses can go on forever. Analyse these negative thoughts down to the bone – if you are not a morning person why not jog in the evenings and then analyse the excuses around that. You are tired, try going to be earlier and except that it will take a bit of an extra effort to get use to the new hours- take one day at a time. Is it cold outside, then jog in your warmest jacket and beanie until you have proven that the cold is only an excuse and not life threatening or do indoor exercises instead.

This list can go on forever but it is really all about braking your feeling of motivation down into smaller sections – to put you in a position to control the smaller sections and in this way motivate yourself even during the toughest times and goals. This example can be applied to all aspects of life, as soon as you can accept the power lies within yourself.