Hacking Into Your Motivation To Be The Most Successful Woman Possible
By admin
Motivation… it is something that I find myself writing and talking about more than I ever would have imagined. When I first started the blog, I thought it would be fitness and nutrition all day, every day.
What I’ve learned since those early days of blogging and being a trainer is that no matter how awesome your workouts and healthy recipes are, if you’re not motivated then nothing matters. And guess what? I want my posts/tips/workouts to matter and to be helpful.
Plus, the more I share on motivation, the more motivated I am as I person. Makes perfect sense!
And that’s why today’s podcast is all focused on motivation:
- What make is the motivation equation?
- What factors go into keeping you motivated?
- How can you stay motivated?
- Why you shouldn’t start a goal for a long long time <– This was really interesting to me!
- And more
If you’re like me, you can always use an extra dose of motivational help. So go ahead and listen in:
Hacking Into Your Motivation
This podcast was inspired by: The Motivation Hacker, a kindle book that Dan just finished up by Nick Winter.
Nick is a successful app developer who shares his secrets for staying motivated to accomplish big goals.
First things first… the equation for motivation:
Let’s quickly go over the motivational pieces:
Expectancy is how much you believe in yourself to accomplish your goals. Do you expect yourself to succeed?
Value is of course, how important is it to you? What kind of reward will you get from achieving your goal?
Impulsiveness, how focused are you on just the one goal? Or do you have a ton of other projects you’re working on? If you tend to jump around from goal to goal, motivation will ween and you won’t accomplish anything.
Delay is another clear variable: the more you delay at starting something, the harder it becomes to keep your motivation high! Do you keep saying “Monday, I’ll get started?” only to have Monday roll around and the goal to be pushed off for another week?
The Biggest Factor That Leads To Staying Motivated?
Confidence.
When you’re confident you expect to succeed. You don’t worry about a timeline, or if things are moving along slower than you would prefer. You keep going because you know that without a doubt you will hit your goals. When you’re confident, you can’t help but to be motivated.
But let’s face it, confidence is a downfall for many of us. There is always that doubt in the back of our minds: Can we do this? Are we good enough?
Dan and I discussed the natural nature of humans to be pessimistic. We are more negative than we are positive, perhaps due to our ancestral ways of the fight/flight response? Well, we’ve come a long way over the thousands of years and it’s time to up our confidence.
Starting with affirmations is the best way to do that. Each morning and evening work on telling yourself positive pep talks. Remind yourself of your goals and how you can accomplish them.
One thing I love, instead of saying “I dream _____” say “I expect _____”.
Dreams aren’t always real, and if you continue to dream, you may never accomplish your goals because deep down you don’t really believe you can. But if you continuously say, “I EXPECT” then you’re telling your brain what will happen. Not what might, but what will. That’s powerful.
Willpower: It It A Muscle?
Dan and I have done previous podcasts and posts on willpower (this one and this one), but Nick puts a new twist on it.
In the past, it’s been preached that willpower is a muscle, but having that mentality might be causing more harm.
For example…
“If you think that resisting the cookie will make you a slacker later, you will probably eat the cookie so you can reserve the willpower you have left. If you don’t believe that willpower is an exhaustible resource then the cookie has no power over your willpower depletion. You don’t generate the exercises which then sap willpower.”
Before I always considered the willpower as a muscle to be true, but after giving it some thought, I have to say the quote makes perfect sense. Willpower as a muscle could simply be used as a really good excuse, but if you just think of one thing at a time and separate everything up then there is no reason that avoiding a cookie now will lead to poor decisions in other aspects of your life.
Deep…
One other thing that is deep… Willpower is really only needed for one thing: To Get Started? At least that’s what this book things. Personally, I think you need willpower the most when you see results and want to start relaxing a bit. Dan thinks you need the most willpower when you realize that the goal you are after is going to take a bit longer than expected… what do you think?
Road To Achieving Goals Starts With Success Spirals
You know, when one success leads to another then another and before long you feel invincible and more motivated than ever! And that’s success spirals.
How do you get started becoming ultra successful? By starting small. Really small.
Set mini goals for yourself that you know you can achieve. Maybe it’s reading for 15 minutes a day for 15 days (that’s mine), maybe it’s working out at least 5 minutes 6 days a week for a month, or maybe it’s bringing your lunch to work every Monday instead of eating out.
When you accomplish this goal, you see that you’re awesome and then you make another goal and accomplish that too. It continues on and on until your BIG goal is achieved.
And that’s what it is all about, mapping out small goals that ultimately get you to your big goal. It can be awfully overwhelming to think about the big goal, right? So don’t. Instead plan out what you can do on a day to day basis that is easy that will help you get where you want to be.
One success story at a time!
There is a lot more that we discussed here as well such as handling obstacles, putting off what you want for when the time is right, and imagining what you want to do as a way to get you psyched and ready. Make sure to listen in for those tips!
and finally…
Say The Two Most Important Words: “I Do”
Commit yourself to achieving your goal. Say you are going to do it and then just do it! No more excuses, putting things off, just go for it.
Yesterday morning, I met Katie for a track workout. She asked what I had planned and I told her I was thinking about doing a timed mile before going into some shorter sprints. I didn’t want to do it, but I knew that by telling her the goal that I couldn’t back out.
Once I announced my goal, I ended it with a “but, I don’t know…” to which she replied: “Too late, you already told me. Go!”
So glad I did! I felt great at the end, and of course successful.
One way to help you stay committed is to use an app such as Beeminder which helps track your progress and helps to serve as a reminder to stay on track.
It’s easy to get caught up in life and literally forget about your mini-goals and actions so having a reminder system can help!
CSI Goals
Goals should be set with 3 things in mind:
Challenging: If they were easy they don’t provide much value. Easy things don’t lead to greatness.
Specific: Be as specific as possible, abstract goals leave you open to impulsiveness which leads to motivational downfalls.
Immediate: Avoid delayed goals, what can you start immediately?
Go For Fun That Is Dense
Life is meant to be enjoyed! When you have fun, you are happy and when you’re happier you’re motivated to actually do things!
But don’t just go for a little fun, do things that pack a lot of fun in a little package. Get the most bang for your buck so to speak. Go for intensity to get a rush.
For me that would mean going cliff diving! For Nick, he talked about sky diving. And for Dan, well this is what he wants to do:
A Few Other Take Aways
–> Goals that take longer are the ones that will mean the most to you when you accomplish them. Don’t give up, getting going after it one little goal at a time!
–> Find ways to track your progress and measure your results. That could be with beeminder, a blog, a diary, anything that works for you!
–> And remember to keep positive people around you! Always!! Adios to the negatives.
Make sure to listen in to find out what our current mini goals are! Dan and I have some pretty big bets going on with some really nasty wages!
Tell me, What are some of your goals right now?