Wednesday, January 30, 2013

3 KEY Steps to Help Stay Motivated

3 KEY Steps to Help Stay Motivated by Shannon Dipierro

One of the most important things for your health and fitness lifestyle is obviously MOTIVATION!


We have to wake up every day motivating ourselves to get out of bed and start the day.   Even when we’re extra tired and just don’t feel like it, we do it anyway!  I mean, could you imagine if none of us got up when we were supposed to everyday to go to work, or to take the kids to school, or show up for a scheduled appointment?  Well, these “responsibilities” as we call them are examples of things in life that we regularly motivate ourselves to do.   If not, we would lose our jobs, risk the school calling child services, and prove ourselves to be untrustworthy to whomever was counting on us to be there.  This all sounds so terrible and unthinkable because we are “self-motivated” to do these things every day, or else!



Ask yourself this question:  “Do you have the same level of motivation when it comes to picking and choosing who you are surrounding yourself with, what kinds of foods you are eating, how often you are working out?”  This is where you have to be really honest with yourself, sit back and think for a minute.



So many of us are super busy using up all of our own motivation to just “get through the day” that we have nothing left for a lot of the things that we truly need to live a happy and healthy life!  It just takes a few minor alterations in how you channel your mental energy to make changes if you are feeling a lack of regular motivation (we all do at times).





Step 1:


If you are not surrounding yourself with confident, goal oriented, hard-working, complimentary, honest people then start to change that.  The more you are interacting with other’s who are constantly making excuses or are always trying to one-up you and minimize anything positive in your life, the more they are stealing your motivation.   Bringing you down so they can feel more empowered is what unhappy people do, and they do this out of envy and insecurity.  Unfortunately, they are the only ones who will ever be able to help themselves.  In the meantime, engage less with them and realize it’s easier to have many “fake” friends than “real” friends.   It’s important to build a loyalty with the people who take a true personal joy in your joys so when you find a friend like that, feed off of each other’s motivation and support.


Step 2:

Just say NO if you don’t feel like going out to dinner or having drinks because you had plans with friends or family to do so.  Ask them if they’d like to come to your home to get together while you cook for everyone.  That way, you can focus on eating healthier without breaking a social/family commitment.  Be honest and tell them you are trying to eat healthier and would love them to share in trying a new recipe with you.  You are now the motivator!  If you put another option out there for people, a lot of the time you’ll be surprised.  Finding ways like this is great to help yourself get back on track with making better food choices.



Step 3:


Ok if you already workout and feel like it’s not as often as it used to be or you want to do it more, than make a “workout to-do list.”  Think about your daily schedule and actually write in your workout time and place.  You can even write some specific exercises you want to focus on for that exact day.  Make the lettering BIG and PRETTY or THICK, maybe using a marker with whatever you can think of to decorate that appointment with yourself (it’s visually more appealing and creates a mental attraction).  Make it the night or day before each next day.   Planning in advance is a great way of helping yourself build inner-motivation to stick with the goals you’ve set.



These three steps are a great start to help significantly increase your level of motivation and help you along in the process, especially when you’re in a little bit of a slump.  Most people go through cycles of it, but turning it up a notch and incorporating these steps really do help!


Shannon DiPierro, President & Co-Founder of Lighthouse Point Fitness Inc.

No comments:

Post a Comment