Top Tips to Maintain Motivation by Sue Courtney

February is upon us already. I hope that January was a great month for you – I certainly enjoyed it enormously. I achieved my goal of raising money for WaterAid by drinking only water for the whole month of January. I feel better for it and raised £150 for the charity, so I am very happy. It is amazing how achieving one goal can make all the others seem so much more achievable.

This month I want to share some more tips to help you stay on track and maintain your motivation. I hope that you have got your goals written out using the 4Ps and that every day you are visualizing how your life will be when they have been achieved. Your vision board is a work in progress, but do view it daily and edit as required. Hopefully your mind maps have given you a clear idea of how you might move your goals forward by taking action and you are beginning to get out of your ‘comfort zone’ and make friends with your ‘stretch zone’.

I imagine that by now that little voice in your head has surfaced telling you that you can’t possibly achieve any of your goals. These irritating demons sit on your shoulder telling you that ‘you can’t possibly do that’, ‘who do you think you are?’, ‘it’s too scary’, ‘you’re too old’ or any number of other lies designed to keep you stuck where you are.

The voice means well and wants to keep you safe from harm but it comes from a negative past and has no place in your new life.  It is a normal part of the process and will always appear. Most people see this as a stop sign but not you – not any more. You just have to learn to deal with the negative voice in any way that works for you.

Some people give it a silly voice – I know one woman who gives hers a voice like Leslie Phillips. Sounding like that, she can’t possibly take it seriously when it tells her she can’t do something! Others have the voice go higher or lower until they can’t hear it.

Personally, I tell the little demons to go into the corner and chat among themselves while I get on with the task. I tell them to watch and learn because this is how it is from now on – I am in charge.

Another way is to ask the demons to rephrase their concerns in a more positive and supportive way. I have also used positive, affirming songs to help me overcome self-doubts and move forward.

Try these methods or invent one of your own. Just don’t let the demons and their lies win, you are in charge of your life now. You can be, do and have anything you want – if you believe it is possible for you.

One way that these demons are able to sabotage your efforts is by pretending that your life is not yours to control. They encourage you to blame circumstances or people outside yourself for your lack of success – the government, your parents, your boss, the weather, friends, the economy etc. We have all done it but the truth is that YOU are 100% responsible for the results in your life. In reality, you took all the decisions that have led you to where you are now. This is great news because it means that if you choose to make different, more empowering decisions from now on, you can change your life. If you haven’t, so far, got the results you want, don’t blame – instead ask yourself:

“Why?”

“How did I create that outcome?”

“What did I do or not do that led to that result and what could I do next time to produce a different result?”

Create the life you want. Photo by Alan Dent

Jack Canfield, in his book “The Success Principles: how to get from where you are to where you want to be” (co written with Janet Switzer) shares a formula given to him by Dr. Robert Resnick which is

E + R = O

or

Event + Response = Outcome.

Basically, your response to events in your life gives you the outcome you experience. If you don’t like your outcomes (life) then change your responses to events in your life. This can be a bit tough to accept, but it is absolutely true so please take it on board and use it to your advantage.

So, plan ahead to make it easier to change your responses. If you are trying to lose weight and know that snacking from boredom in the evening while watching the television are an issue make some changes. Have some knitting to hand to keep your hands busy, remove all temptation from the house and only have healthy snacks to hand, go for a walk after dinner or go to the gym. Phone a friend for a chat or get yourself a buddy you can call whenever the temptation to snack becomes too much. You get the idea – find ways to enable your success. It is up to you. You and only you, are responsible for your results.

However, you don’t want life to be a strain. It should be easy and enjoyable so make time every day to do something you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to make you happy. It might be reading a couple of pages from a book, doing a row or two of knitting, making time to sit down with a cuppa before getting on with cooking the evening meal. Or it might be having a moment of quiet in the morning to hear the birds sing before getting on with your day. Whatever works for you is what you do.

Make time to sit down with a cuppa. Photo by Alan Dent

If you are having challenges with your goals then please drop me an email, I would be happy to offer some advice. I would also love to hear about your amazing achievements this year.

Next time I will some more, effective ways to boost your success and create the life you dream of.