Is your New Year Motivation Already Waning?

This morning I went to my normal Wednesday PT session at my local gym as I have been doing along with my Friday session, since about March last year. During the session my PT mentioned that the gym was busier than usual and that it was probably because of the new year resolutioners. I tended to agree. A lot of the faces were new and abuzz with enthusiasm, which as most of us know will likely not last much past February for most people. Maybe even the end of January for the really unmotivated. 

And this got me thinking about motivation and why most people fail to stay motivated to complete their resolutions or achieve their goals. Now as a mindset coach, I understand a thing or two about motivation and how it works in our brains. The thing is that it's not what most people think it is. There are some fundamental keys to understanding motivation that, if everyone knew about, many more things would be ticked off people's proverbial to-do-list. 

If you research about motivation you will notice that most of the information talks about setting goals, frequently reviewing them, keeping up momentum by creating habits, surrounding yourself with positive people who support your goals and aspirations and rewarding yourself for the little wins. But the fact is these things can certainly help you achieve your goals and the things on your to do list but they are not actually ways to stay motivated. What they are, are tools to support you to attain what you desire not tools for motivation. 

Motivation is actually created from something entirely different. Motivation is an internal process. Whether it is defined as a need or a drive (to achieve something) it is a condition inside you that desires something different. Motivation is the reason behind why you perform any given action, and whilst you can be motivated by your desires, if what you desire stems from negative feelings or emotions about that thing, you will likely not achieve it. 

Here's why - motivation generally requires emotional inspiration of some type for you to be motivated to take action (i.e. I’m inspired to achieve that goal, therefore I am motivated to take action to get me there). 

So let's say your motivation is to lose weight because you are ashamed of how you look.  Those negative feelings of shame will likely be the very thing that prevent you from going to the gym to achieve your weight loss goals because you would need to exercise in front of a gym full of potentially fit and healthy people.  And further to that, any small set backs will create more negative feelings, further dulling your inspiration and resulting in less motivation for you to keep going. 

It’s a vicious loop really.  

Here’s the thing – when you change what you want, when you focus on the RIGHT desires, motivation is no longer an issue. 

So what are the right desires you ask?  Well, the ones that give you emotional inspiration. Because your emotions influence how you think and act, they can either hinder your progress toward your goals or they can inspire them.  So, it makes sense that emotions of inspiration will create an environment where you are motivated to act, whereas emotions that make you feel some sense of trauma, will likely have the opposite effect. 

What this leads to then, is a focus on the WHY of what you desire.  It is in the why that you can find the emotional inspiration to keep you motivated to keep taking action.  It’s in finding the right desires.  The ones created through inspiration as opposed to the ones created through fear, judgement, shame, and other feelings of being not good enough. 

So how do I do that, I hear you ask.  Well, the gold is in your perspective.  Because your perspective has a lot to do with how you make your decisions.  By changing your perspective you could uncover a whole new way of seeing, thinking and feeling about yourself and your whys for what you want to achieve. Changing your perspective on your why will change your emotional response to your goal thereby taking away your issues with motivation. 

Let’s look at our weight loss example.  Changing your perspective from ‘I want to be thinner so I can look better and not feel so judged by society’ to ‘when I go to the gym and do a workout I always feel good about myself and what I have achieved’. 

Can you see the difference?  One is focused on changing due to negative emotions and outside influence and the other is focused on changing due to already positive internal feelings of accomplishment for something you’ve already done.  And once one action is achieved, it is easy to achieve the next action because you are reminded of how you felt the last time you took that action. Thereby creating emotional inspiration to continue to obtain that feeling. 

So if your goal is to lose weight and become thinner, your mindset goal becomes: “When I work out at the gym, I feel accomplished and proud of myself and at the same time I support my journey to better health and weight loss. 

What this does, is focus on each small thing that makes you feel good, i.e. each workout at the gym (each action) has a positive effect on your emotions thereby creating a recipe for you to repeat that action. 

So that’s it really.  Change your perspective on your why, change your emotional inspiration, maintain your motivation to achieve your deepest desires. 

And if you feel like you need some extra help with your motivation and achieving your goals, and you want to delve into mastering your motivation with support from me, then join my FREE 7 day Motivation Mindset Challenge Mini Series, which starts on 15^th January 2023. It's all online and it's completely free!

The link is below for you to come and join me for free in this very special mini series.  

You’ve literally got nothing to lose and you might just finally reach that goal your aiming for.