Top 10 Keys to Stay Motivated to ….(Meditate, Exercise, Eat healthy etc)

Posted on 07. Jun, 2013 by in Mind, Body & Spirit Wisdom

Follow these keys and action steps to help get and stay motivated to reach your goals. By implementing these keys, you’ll easily stay encouraged and bounce back from any setbacks much easier. You’ll discover that you can utilize these keys for your personal and professional life.

1. Find your WHY. Why are you making this goal in the 1st place? What drives you to make this goal? Is it to be healthy? To relieve pain?
Action Step: Find what drives you and then exploit it to stay motivated and focused. Write it down and post it in many places where you will see it frequently throughout the day.
Example: My Goal: A daily meditation practice. Why? To distress daily, to access the brilliance of my inner mind & higher power. Most importantly, to practice what I preach –this is my main driving force for this activity.

2. Plan ahead. Create a schedule. What time, place, and how long do you plan to do this?
Action Step: Create a schedule and put it in your calendar.
Example: I’ll meditate 5 min/day for 30 days at 9pm in my bedroom. Every month I’ll increase it with an additional 5 min/day. I have an alarm set up everyday 5 min. before my meditation practice is to begin.

3.. Reward Yourself. As you move forward to your goals reward yourself from time to time. Whatever your goal may be, find ways to give yourself little treats. Go on an adventure, buy something new. Create rewards that are both big & small.
   Action Step Create small and large rewards for yourself.
Example: After every successful week of meditating I’ll take an afternoon off for a hike or adventure. After 1 month of successfully meditating I’ll buy myself a crystal for my alter or new outfit.

4. Track Your Results. Whether it’s on a piece of paper or using an app, record your progress each and everyday. Your results will help to motivate you!
Action Step: Find and create a system that works for you.
Example: I have a calendar by my meditation area where I simply put a star each day I meditate. I also jot down a few notes about what I received that day from meditating. Some days it’s a complete breeze to meditate that I enjoy it so much that I can easily stay longer. Other days, it’s hard, challenging to sit still and my mind won’t shut up. As I track my results, I’m beginning to learn more about what make me tick, how to be more efficient and decrease the amount of time I’m challenged.

5. Recognize Your Successes. Take a moment to review your goals you’ve already achieved and the steps you’ve completed toward achieving your goals. Be grateful for your progress and accomplishments you’ve made.
Action Step: Every week, take a moment to review your progress and honor yourself for what you’ve achieved.
Example: Every Sunday I review my successes from the week before to help myself focus and create the upcoming week. I take a few moments to get up, dance around and hug myself for taking the time, energy and effort to move forward towards my goals.

6. Immediately Forgive Yourself for any Setbacks. I use to laugh at my friend who kept getting on & off the wagon and asked her why she keeps doing it. She looked me straight into the eye and said, ‘it’s not about me falling off the wagon, it’s more important that I keep getting back on.’ I learned at that moment that she had a mindset that focused more on the positive than beating herself up for the negative. It’s extremely important to stop negative self talk dead in its tracks if you have a tendency to beat yourself up when you have a failure. Instead focus on what can be learned from your mistake and immediately get back to the task of achieving your goal.
Action Step: If a day is missed, take a moment to evaluate where it went wrong, assess your successes, review your reasons ‘why’ you’re making the goal in the 1st place.
Example: Within a week of making this goal I had set my time to meditate 1st thing in the morning. My daily routine varies and often I felt like a failure before noon. When I took a step back, I realized I’m not a morning person so I re-arranged my time for 9pm. This way I can always meditate earlier or I have my alarm going off as a reminder.

7. Learn New Things. It’s easy to get into a same old routine and get bored. Perhaps you need to spice things up with learning a new skill. However, make sure that you take the time to implement the new thing before going onto the next.
Action Step: How often do you need to learn a new technique? Every week, every month? Schedule it in your calendar.
Example: Sunday is my day to spice things up for the week where I’m dedicated to implementing a technique. For meditation, there are a variety of ways to breathe, to focus one’s mind and use one’s body.

8. Have a Buddy System. Whether you a person doing the goal with you or simply long distance, it’s fun to be able to have another person help motivate each other. You can bounce around ideas in what’s working for you and what your challenges are. This can help keep the momentum and give each other ideas on how to keep moving forward.
Action Step: Find a friend who has a similar goal as you. Perhaps it’s not the same goal but it’s still a goal where you can help keep each other accountable, bounce around some ideas and help each other celebrate successes.
Example: My friend Susan & I are great at doing various 30 day challenges. We’ve created goals together such as hula hooping, walking, learning about the chakras and now meditating. We do these activities both together and on our own. For us, we’ve discovered that the buddy system works wonders.

9. Encourage Others. As you encourage others, you are doing two things. First you are giving confidence and warm loving energy to the people you are directing it towards. Secondly, you are absorbing what you are telling them. It sticks with you. You will find yourself believing it even more, not just for others, but for yourself as well.
Action Steps: Find something authentic and let the person know that you notice this about them as they strive for their goals.
Example: For my friend who goes on and off the wagon. “Thanks for being a great example of a person who has a goal, may become side-tracked, but always get back on path. You have shown me that it’s more important to get back at it than to punish myself for and set-backs. Your positive attitude is one to role model.

10. Only Use THIS IF You Still Need More Incentive: Use Fear. This may seem like a dirty little trick, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil to truly learn how to stay motivated. If you are unable to connect with why you do what you do, perhaps thinking of what would happen if you didn’t will remind you. You may use this only as a last resort if nothing else seems to be working.
Action Step: Think of what you could lose if you don’t get the task at hand completed. Analyze what’s at stake and let the fear of losing these valuable things pump you into getting motivated!
Example: Consequences for not meditating. 1. My negative self talk soars. 2. I loose confidence as a teacher for not practicing what I preach. 3. The lack of distressing can lead me to having headaches.

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