Monitoring Motivation

Motivation is a dynamic energy, meaning it can change very quickly. One day you may have a lot of motivation and the next very little. You might wake up in the morning all motivated, something happens and then for the rest of the day it is very hard to get back.

Why is motivation so fickle? Why does it take so long to build up and yet can be taken in a matter of seconds? Could it be that we don’t have the right equation for our motivation? Could it be that we are relying on a few unstainable elements to keep our motivation alive?

A common unsustainable element for motivation I have observed people run off is willpower. Willpower is an important part of the motivation equation; however, willpower alone can be easily tampered with. This is because motivation and willpower can be altered with many and various life situations, (which will be measured by our own individual ability to cope with life, our resistance to stress, our personalities, social influence, belief systems etc) it becomes a fine dance and balance of many facets.

For example, if your motivation is to correct some bad binge eating habits, and you go about it based off willpower, by restricting yourself from foods you normally binge eat; then find yourself in a situation with friends where they are eating the very foods you are avoiding (in a setting where it is easily obtained) the likelihood of you being able to get past that social and environmental influence would be very low. Unless, you had a strong purposeful foundation for your motivation to stop binge eating, such as, it’s not benefiting your physical or mental health or and it is affecting your close relationships, and so on.

For motivation to become sustainable over time, it needs to have a strong foundation. This means to have a strong passion driven reason to fuel the motivation for a certain action or behaviour to take place. This passion will come from a deeper belief system as to why it is so important to you to act or behave in a certain way. This foundational element is probably one of the hardest elements for people to discover, as it is often missed out. 

For example, if we return to the binge eating example above where willpower alone would not be sustainable, for motivation to become more sustainable they will need to go within themselves and become aware of their own deeper passion for and appreciation for life, a desire to respect themselves and learn to love themselves greater. After this discovery and exploration has taken place, this would need to be followed by changes to their behaviour and actions based on those deeper passionate reasons and perspectives towards themselves and life. They will struggle however to make the necessary changes if they simply force themselves to change without that deeper reason too, because without the deeper reason there is no fuel or drive to keep them going when they must face certain bumps in their journey.

Discovering a strong passion statement, the greatest purpose and reason you want to be motivated to do something will be your foundational element. Before you create goals to achieve what you desire to achieve, you need the passion statement or a deeper purpose.

Next, comes all the building elements that assist your passion to keep motivation flowing. Below I will list (in no particular order) all the assisting elements to motivation. Why not for yourself see from the list which of these are your strengths and which ones you could be stronger in. Then, see which ones you know work well to help you with your motivation or which ones you had not considered; then see how you can bring them more into your life to boost your motivation levels.

- Inspiration, brings life and flow to your passion/ purpose

Do you feel inspired by the action you are taking or what you desire to achieve?

- Joy helps to foster consistency in what you desire to achieve because when we enjoy something we want to keep doing it.

Does everything you are working towards bring you joy?

- Peace brings stability and calmness to allow us to make better choices.

Are you able to maintain peace so that you can make wise decisions so that things in life can flow more easily for you?

- Determination is a driving force which helps you to keep moving forward, even through challenges.

How set are you on this is what you really desire? Do you need to reassess your deeper purpose, passion, and reasoning for wanting to achieve or change?

- Strength is a solidifying force which helps you with steadiness, which works well with determination.

What things bring you strength and how can you work these things in to your life to assist you daily? I.e., spending time in nature.

- Courage

How far are you willing to push past your fears? Courage is about having the strength and determination to keep going despite our fears, and a desire to overcome them.

- Self-Love is important because if you don’t love yourself how can any of these other element’s work.

How much love for yourself to do you have to want to change or achieve?

- Gratitude

Are you grateful for the little accomplishments along your journey? How grateful are you for everything in your life? If you can improve here?

(If we are grateful in our life and our journey, we build a flow that moves towards creating more doorways and opportunities for us to keep growing in the most beautiful of ways, even despite challenges that still may come our way).

-  Appreciation (works hand in hand with gratitude)

How much do you appreciate life?

Sometimes it is easy to be grateful for things we are given in the moment. However, to build up the understanding of learning to appreciate all things regardless of what is happening will help to create a smoother flow in your life, so when things do happen, the motivation you have been working with helps you to carry you through the rough patch, so that you can keep moving forward.

-  A strong heart and mind

To implement all the above, one must find the strength within the heart and mind to access their desires and then be able to work with them.

If you are needing help with motivation to implement health and wellbeing changes in your life then feel free to get in touch here or sign up to be informed when further education and coaching related motivation advise is released.