I often have people say ‘I’m feeling little motivation lately’ or ‘I’m struggling to get motivated’. Sound familiar? Everyone experiences this at some stage and motivation is a funny thing.

I remember reading in a book by John Maxwell, who is a well known leadership speaker and author:

‘Motivation gets you going, discipline keeps you growing’

I find this to be the case, you can get motivated or inspired initially by external forces like a person, coach, something you read or watched, a new year’s resolution, but how often do you find that wears off over time?

To be brutally honest we can’t use motivation, or lack of, as an excuse. If we waited for motivation we would wait forever! It’s a feeling and if we did what we felt like we would all be sitting on the couch eating chocolate.

Action and discipline is the key. ‘Motivation is not going to strike you like lightening. The whole idea of motivation is a trap! Forget motivation! Just do it anyway!’ Say’s John Maxwell. ‘Do it without motivation and they guess what? After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it’.

I often tell clients who struggle to get up early and go for a walk to leave their gym clothes out ready for when they wake up. Get dressed walk outside and walk to the corner. If then you decide you don’t want to go any further and go back to bed, then do just that. But the catch is you won’t!!! Once you take action and start the ‘thing’, you will keep going.

Getting started is the hardest part and often you have to take the ‘feeling’ out of it and just get on with it. Most mornings I’m up at 4am. Do I ‘feel’ like it….hell no!!! If I did what I ‘felt’ like I would hit snooze and roll over, especially in winter. So how do I do it? Honestly I don’t think about it. It’s just a decision I’ve already made. I put my alarm across the other side of the room so I have to physically get out of bed. Sometimes I sit on the ground and think ‘why?’ lol, then my inner voice say’s get your arse up and I walk straight to the bathroom, cleanse and moisturise my face, brush my teeth and put on my clothes that I had already laid out. Once I’ve done that I’m wide awake and have no desire to go back to bed. What’s your solution? You have to know what will make you come undone and solve it. I’ve had clients sleep in their gym gear…great solution I thought.

The other thing that gets me going is thinking THROUGH that initial feeling of ‘I just want to stay in bed’. I know that I feel better all day after I’ve started the day with exercise. I have more energy and more focus to get me through and I achieve more. I’ve had days where I’ve gone back to bed and felt worse the entire day. The payoff to exercise is I get more time from my day.

Am I waiting for motivation, no? I’m taking action regardless of how I feel in that moment because I know my goals, my why power, my reason, my values and that’s more important to me. I want to have optimal health and energy to keep up with my kids and Tom to get the most out of life. We love jetskiing and escaping with the kids to one of the islands and spending time together without technology. I love wave jumping and am slightly competitive with my hubby. We love travelling overseas, giving our family experiences and creating lifelong memories. I want to always feel young at heart and in my body, age is just a number. I want us to be great role models and an inspiration for our kids, (all they know is what they see at home). Great health and fitness is required for all of that!!!!

So what about you? What’s your reason? It can’t be as vague as I want to get fit, that will only get you so far. Why do you want to get fit? Do you want more energy to keep up with life, play with your kids? Are you sick of feeling tired, overweight, unhealthy, depressed and just fed up with feeling that way? Do you lack the confidence to achieve your goals? But go deeper than that – what is it you’re wanting to achieve….a new job/career, a partner, an upcoming holiday, wedding or event? Your ‘why’ is what keeps you motivated long after the initial enthusiasm wears off. It can keep you going when willpower isn’t enough. Plaster pictures or your goals all around your house, work and car to remind you and help keep you on track.

You have to continuously think back to your initial reasons and why you started in the first place. Is that still important to you? If it is you’ll take action regardless of how you feel.

A good friend of mine and incredibly successful psychologist put it this way:

If you wait for motivation, you’ll wait forever!!!

Forget motivation!

Do it anyway!

Just step up!

I love it.

Lisa x