Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 262 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast!
Thank you for being here! I love hanging out with you twice a week….whether you’re driving, working out, or having coffee…it’s good to be with you.
So, how DO you keep your motivation? In a nutshell…..you’re not gonna! Here I go winning the most inspiring podcast again….. But you know Im not going to leave you there…..I am always going to follow it up with good news… because there is always good news. And the good news is you can supplement motivation just like you can supplement Vitamin D. Noone is motivated 100% of the time. That’s not reality. But that doesn’t mean you just lay down and throw in the towel. No way, The name of this podcast is not Mildly successful Lifestyle, it’s WILDLY successful Lifestyle for a reason. We do hard things. We find a way around the obstacle. We find a way past the limitations we have placed on ourselves. That’s what success is all about. Having a goal and working towards it in spite of the doubts, in spite of the obstacles. We have little moments of success all along the way, we have failures too, but those failures are just stepping stones unless we quit. But You don’t have a quitters spirit, I know this because you’re listening and my message isn’t for quitters, my message isn’t for people who want to play the victim. It’s for people like you and me that know our power lies within us, not within someone or something external. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t supplement our own power with a little help to get motivated when we feel tired or when we don’t feel like doing something. Part of our power is knowing when we need a little extra support.
While we were on vacation this last week, my little sister and I exercised almost every day, running and doing bodyweight exercises, it was so easy to stay motivated because I had a partner right there with me, pushing me and challenging me and I was also going to be in a bathing suit which helps motivation too. Fast forward to the Monday after we get home and I don’t have my work out partner and I don’t have the pressure of getting into a bathing suit, but I still knew I would feel better if I exercised, but on a rainy Monday morning that was easier said than done. My motivation was almost zero.
I knew I needed a little help. So I asked myself what has worked in the past to get me going when I didn’t feel like going? I laughed to myself and thought “David Goggins”. Now, If you don’t know who David Goggins is, as soon as this episode is over go listen to some of his motivational speeches. He may be a bit harsh but he gives us a dose of reality that I think is needed. So I get my running gear on and head outside and put my AirPods in and search for David Goggins on Spotify. I knew it would work when the first thing he said was “Don’t be a punk”. Well, I don’t want to be a punk, and when that ended I listened to Kobe Bryant saying he didn’t want lazy players around him, he didn’t need to be soaking up that energy and I ran harder with that, thinking I don’t want to bring anyone down with lazy energy, especially myself and I listened to one thing after another and that 3 mile run turned out to be amazing and to top it off, I did a cold plunge afterward in my bathtub because Im the boss of me, I tell my mind what to do. Im sure my husband thought I was off my rocker, but later he told me he had done a cold plunge too because I inspired him. So what started out as a pity party rainy Monday ended up with me inspiring even my husband to do something hard. That felt pretty good.
My whole day changed because I decided to figure out a way to get myself moving even when I didn’t feel like it at all.
It’s my job to figure out a way to get going. No-one else is coming to motivate me. No-one else can do the hard things for me, I have to figure out a way to do them myself.
Sometimes we think we should only do things when we feel like it. No, that makes us a 3 year old. You know Im right, 3 year olds only do what they feel like doing, until Mom or dad makes them do it. When you’re 3, your agenda is set by mom and dad. But you’re in charge of your agenda now and you have dreams and goals that aren’t going to be realized unless you make them happen. And sometimes you’re going to be killing it and just motivated as all get out and then other days you aren’t gonna feel like doing anything, and you get to decide if that’s a day where you’ve been killing it and you need time to rest and that may be the case, but more often than not, you just need to remind yourself “to not be a little punk, and find a way to do it anyway”
Real success is finding a way to do it anyway, and then watching as the momentum builds in your favor.
I love a good motivational speech and sometimes that’s all it takes to get the ball moving and then my own power takes over from there.
We all would like to be motivated right out of the gate, but that isn’t reality. Sometimes we have to start and then the motivation kicks in. And when you do that you’re training yourself to move anyway, knowing the motivation will come. The momentum will shift in the direction of your actions. If you feel a lack of motivation and you decide to sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch Netflix, the momentum starts shifting in that direction. And the more you do that, the harder it gets to shift momentum the other direction. You control that though. The more you do of anything, the easier it gets to do it, That applies in both directions, the more time you spend on social media, the easier it gets to veg out on social media, the more you hit the gym the easier it gets to hit the gym.
You are training yourself with every single decision you make. When you don’t feel like doing something and so you simply don’t do it, you’re training yourself to do that in the future. When you don’t feel like doing something and you do it anyway, Now, you’re training yourself to persist, you’re training yourself to do hard things, you’re training yourself that you CAN do hard things. And there’s no shame in supplementing a little motivation externally. It’s actually brilliant, because you’re getting out ahead of it. You’re setting yourself up for success. So, Get a partner, have a David Goggins motivational speech on speed dial, bookmark this episode because I know we’ve been to church today but it’s only because I love you and I believe in you and I know you’re human and you’re not a quitter but you’re also not going to wake up every day totally motivated so figure out a way to give yourself an edge when you need it. We all do.
My challenge to you today is to come up with 3 things you can do for yourself when you know you need to do something but you have a lack of motivation to do it. Get out a head of it. If hearing David Goggins tell you not to be a little punk works for you, then by all means use it, if techno music turned up loud works then by all means create a spotify channel just for that, if this episode works for you, click the little square with the arrow and send it to yourself so you will always have it.
Life is a beautiful symphony of ups and downs, you aren’t always going to be up, but you can find a way to make the downs a little less powerful.
If you want to do someone else a favor, share this episode, if you want to do me a favor, go give me a 5 star rating if you love this episode. We all look at the ratings to decide whether it’s worth our time so it matters A LOT in the podcast world to have more ratings.
I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
