| |
Create A Life Of Ease
by Activating Your Motivation
Andrew McCombe
Motivation is possibly the biggest determining factor when
it comes to creating your life of EASE. Your level of motivation
can make or break your plans. That is why it is so important
to be clear on the underlying values and feelings that your
goals will give you before you embark on achieving them. If
they are very clear and you feel 100% committed to their achievement
then nothing will get in the way of your success. But there
may be times when you feel a little flat and it is at these
times that you will need the support of both internal and
external motivation to keep going.
Motivation can be:
External: Rewards, prizes and recognition.
Internal: Challenge and accomplishment.
Motivation is very important, especially when you maybe about
to embark on something that has the potential to change your
life, such as a training program at the gym, a new career,
or having a family etc. When learning any new skill, or adopting
any new behaviour, there are four stages that you will need
motivation for, they are:
1) The Discomfort Stage
2) The Results Stage
3) The Pleasure Stage
4) The Maintenance Stage
I will use exercise as an example to demonstrate each of these
stages of motivation.
The Discomfort Stage
When you first start doing exercise, it seems like hard work.
Your body tires quickly, you feel short of breath easily,
your muscles are often sore the next day and of course it
will be difficult to find the time to workout.
The good news is that this stage doesn't last forever. In
most cases, between four and six weeks are required before
the next stage is reached. The length of time depends on your
initial fitness level, your program and your ability to train
regularly.
During this stage, motivation often needs to come from outside;
a personal trainer, a life coach or a structured program can
be particularly helpful.
The Results Stage
During this stage, the time and effort that you have put into
your exercise program begins to pay off; much of the discomfort
of doing exercise is over and you even find yourself feeling
good after each session. More importantly, you will feel the
rewards of your effort, you will feel fitter, begin to see
changes in your body shape and you may discover that you have
more energy.
Motivation becomes much easier, as there are now positive
benefits to balance the short term pain or inconvenience of
exercise. Some external motivation is still helpful though
as it is easy at this stage to skip a session and lose momentum.
The Pleasure Stage
As the name suggests, during this stage your exercise program
becomes a pleasurable experience. The physical rewards are
still realised, but the main motivators are now psychological,
a person in this stage wants to exercise.
When you reach the pleasure stage, you don't like to miss
a session, in fact studies have shown that regular, long-term
exercisers show withdrawal symptoms if they miss a session.
Needless to say, when you have reached this stage, motivation
is not a problem. Reward yourself for your efforts.
The Maintenance Stage
Although you are well into your training routine and things
are going great, it is important at this stage to maintain
long term motivation. If you continue to perform the same
program for too long you may become bored or your physical
results may plateau. It is important to add variety to your
workouts and mix up your training sessions, try a group class
one day, a boxing session the next to provide you with added
stimulus and to spark further results and motivation.
The Ten Keys to Self-Motivation
The following are ten key points to help keep you motivated
to achieve all of your new goals.
1. Establish clear goals. Know why you are activating
your life and the steps that you will be taking by setting
specific and realistic goals. If there are times when you
are finding it hard to keep going, your goals will help to
keep you on the right path.
2. Plan ahead. At the beginning of each week, or each
day, decide what strategies you are going to perform, for
how long and at what time. Make sure that you have whatever
equipment or support you need. That way, when it is time to
take action, you will not have to think about it, you can
just turn up and get on with it.
3. Incorporate fun and variety. Developing a variety
of fun and interesting strategies in your program will help
you to stay interested and reduce boredom. Fun and variety
also reduce the chances of you dropping out and help you to
ensure that you have a holistic and well-balanced program.
4. Reward yourself. Give yourself a reward from day
one, just for having embarked on your program. The reward
could be anything from simply congratulating yourself, to
giving yourself a special treat, just make sure that you don't
reward yourself with things that are detrimental to your progress.
5. Perform your goals with a friend or partner. This
way you can motivate each other.
6. Enlist support from your family and close friends.
Or utilise the Activate Your Life support resources such as
personal trainers, life coaches and the Activate Your Life
website.
7. Ensure personal accountability. Develop a system
whereby you are accountable for the achievement of your goals.
This could be a weekly session with your life coach or a weekly
check in with a close friend. Accountability works best when
there is a deadline and when there is something that you stand
to lose if you do not achieve your goals or perform set tasks.
This may be as simple as losing respect from the person you
are accountable to, or having to pay a fine of some form.
8. Always focus on the goals you want to achieve and the
feelings you want to feel throughout your Program. Your
subconscious mind works like a heat-seeking missile; it will
always hit what it is aiming for. If you experience adversity
or setbacks during your goal achievement journey, stay positive
and continue to focus on what it is you want to achieve and
the feelings you want to feel.
9. Plan for obstacles, setbacks and adversity. By failing
to plan, you plan to fail. Identify any potential obstacles
that you may encounter and design a strategy to overcome them
so that they will not affect your progress toward your goals.
10. Record your progress in a diary or training manual.
By aiming for constant daily improvements you will soon achieve
the goals you have set. Recording your progress allows you
to see your improvements from week to week, which increases
your confidence, motivation and determination to adhere to
the program.
You have been given a gift. It is called life. And with this
gift you have been given all of the talents, all of the knowledge
and all of the power to create whatever it is you want to
create on this Earth. Regardless of what shape or form this
gift comes in for you, you owe it to yourself to go out there
and become the best person you can possibly be, doing whatever
it is that you want to do and use your gift to see what an
amazing life you can create for yourself. You serve no one,
especially not yourself, by choosing to be average!
Andrew McCombe is an international author, coach,
presenter and trainer and can
assist you, your team or your organization with your health,
fitness, well being and motivational needs.
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
Return to Mental Game
of Motivation Articles directory.
|
|
