How to get motivated…

This just happened last month and I cannot stop bragging about her.  This is a huge deal!  It takes consistent effort and motivation to stick with it long enough for this kind of result!

How does something like this happen? 

How to get motivated…

I gave a seminar last month and I sometimes ask people what they want to get out of this talk.  One of the comments was: How to get motivated? There are many things in our life that we would like to improve on.  Most of these improvements require change and effort, and because of this they sit sometimes for years not done. 

So the question is how do we actually get started?

I am going to give you a couple ideas and finish with how I see people staying motivated long enough to reach their goals. 

I would love to tell you people start because they want to be skinny, healthy, strong, and fabulous. They do want that but the real starting motivation is to no longer be their heaviest weight, not die from the blood pressure or other health issue, not feel so useless, and to quit being so horrible.  (I’m not saying these people are horrible but that is the inner dialog that is going on fairly often). 

It’s a negative motivator that often gets us started:

- A picture of us that we couldn’t get away before it was taken

- Our biggest pants that now won’t button

- A wedding we are in or have to attend

- 30^thhigh school reunion

- A recent divorce

“The pain of staying the same becomes greater than the perceived effort to change.”

I say perceived effort because it may seem harder to get started than it actually is.  We eventually get so unhappy with where we are that we HAVE to do something about it even if it seems tough. 

So…the only way to get started is to feel awful?

I think there is another way to get started.  It is more rare but I think any of us can stir it up enough to get started at any moment. DESIRE!  You know that same thing that makes you want ice cream after dinner? We don’t just desire food.  We desire happiness, significance, appreciation, companionship, and many other things.  If we can paint an exciting enough picture of the future the excitement becomes greater than the perceived obstacles. 

Actually this is what good sales people do.  They can stir up an excitement for the possible future which makes inaction and staying the same more painful.  If done in someone’s best interest it is appreciated later.  If done to get you to pay money for junk then anger usually results when the promise falls short. 

You need to be your own sales person.  Start by sitting down and listing all the benefits of taking an action.  You might just list enough that you can’t stand waiting another moment to ACT!

When you have an ounce of motivation…

Commit to something that’s hard to back out of.  Sign up for a race, fitness class, or challenge.  Committing some money will hold you to following through.  And if other people are involved they will help you out.  If you commit to only yourself to exercise daily and watch what you eat, that commitment fades to nothing in a matter of days, hours, or minutes for most people. 

THE BIRTHPLACE OF REAL MOTIVATION

Once you commit hopefully you picked something good to commit to, then you need to fight hard to get some early results.  This is where REAL motivation comes from.  I find it starts with ACTION then RESULTS then MOTIVATION to continue the action. No one want’s to be on a hard and horrible diet with no results.  Those don’t last long.  You need to do something fun and easier that can get you results.  Then you can keep it up and finally be one of those people who actually lose weight and KEEP IT OFF!

We just had a recent example of this happen (well it’s been 15 months in the making).  Someone signed up for our first ever Thinner to Winner contest (details for this years contest at www.thinnertowinner.com)  She joined the contest lost some weight then joined boot camp and continued to lose weight and we kept coaching her and encouraging her hard work.  This month she is now 100 pounds lighter!  She took on a challenge with other people and jump-started an amazing journey.  I tell you this because you need to know it’s possible.  Not only possible but exciting. 

How to get motivated right now…I suggest you do 3 things:

1.) Sit down and list all the benefits you will get from making this change.

2.) If you don’t feel motivated yet you can try the negative motivators.  List all the consequences of staying in the same rut for 5, 10, or 20 more years. 

3.) If you feel an ounce of motivation sign-up for something quick!  Of course we would love you to join our program or the thinner to winner challenge that starts April 22^nd.  But, in the end we just want you to be successful. 

FIRE UP YOUR MOTIVATION ROCKETS AND DO SOMETHING THAT WILL GET YOU A POSITIVE RESULT QUICKLY!

Our program www.talltrainer.com