Secrets to unstoppable motivation

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
Winnie the Pooh

As a Life Coach, a query I constantly encounter is “How can I get motivated?”. The truth is that even the most motivated people on the planet are not motivated every single day. Trust me. Motivation isn’t a magic fairy dust that falls from the sky, nor is it a constant you can bank on.

Motivation stems from the secret and elusive sauce called discipline.

We all have those days where getting started feels akin to trudging through treacle, and the siren call of Netflix from the comfort bed seems way more alluring than getting up, but here's the secret: the most motivated souls are disciples of discipline. They are unwavering in their commitment, whether it's related to their work, finances, or even their pursuit of happiness. Even on the days when the mere thought of the gym or the office is repellant, they muster the strength and resolve to show up and get it done anyway.

Now, it doesn’t come easy, I know,but we can forge discipline into a habit. They say it takes just 21 days to fashion a habit and 90 days to engrave it into the core of your being. Consistency, dear readers, is the key. Once you've harnessed the habit of discipline, your self-confidence will bloom, and motivation will dance into your life with greater ease.

Here are the MindVibes top tips for Mastering motivation through discipline:

1. Craft your SMART goal

To achieve anything in life, be it a career change, weight loss, or writing a blog piece, we need to know where we’re going in order to get there. The magic of goal-setting cannot be overstated in boosting your sense of accomplishment. Write down your goal, and to ensure your success, make it SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Time-Bound. For instance:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable, and

Time-Bound.

For example:

Lose half a stone (Specific) by losing 1lb a week (Measurable) through limiting sugar to Fridays and working out 3 x per week (Achievable) by Christmas Eve (Timebound).

Remember, "People with goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals," as the Journal of Applied Psychology reveals.

2. Define your “WHY”

What do you truly and honestly want your life to look like?

Imagine today is a short movie of your life. If you fast-forward to the end, how will it pan out if you don’t do the thing you promised yourself you would? What are the negative consequences of putting this off?

Living a life true to our values and focusing on our "WHY" on a daily basis is key to staying motivated and I cannot emphasise this point hard enough.  If you start each and every day by considering what you really want in life, you are way more likely to keep going, as you can clearly see the bigger personal impact of your daily actions.

3. Identify your weakness

Ask yourself what the one thing holding you back is when it comes to staying motivated. Is it fear? Depression? A self-destructive habit? Secure the support you need, whether it's a therapist, an accountability partner (like a Life Coach), newfound wisdom, or the sympathetic ear of a close friend.

4. Eat frogs for breakfast

If you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.
Mark Twain

The ‘eat a frog’ strategy is a fantastic productivity tool which involves completing the task that you’re most dreading, first thing in the morning. This provides a sense of accomplishment and will immediately boost your motivation for the rest of the day.

5. Boost your dopamine

Dopamine is the chemical building block fundamental to creating action. When our dopamine levels are elevated, we are more focused on our goals.

There are many hacks to boost our dopamine and some of tried and tested are:

●      Getting outside and accessing 15 minutes of sunlight immediately upon waking

●      Taking cold showers (which have been proven to boost dopamine levels for several hours)

●      Drinking coffee and eating high cocoa content chocolate for a quick boost (the higher the cocoa content, the better)

6. Just start (with the 5 minute rule)

Commit to the ‘Five minute rule’. This is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy technique that works brilliantly for tackling procrastination.  You only have to commit to spending five minutes writing that business proposal or jogging, and if it’s completely unbearable, you’re allowed to stop.  Just getting started is the key to building motivation, and by turning a seemingly huge and overwhelming task into a 5 minute activity, your brain perceives it as less of a threat and is tricked into starting it with reduced anxiety. Once you’ve started the task you’re highly likely to realise it’s not as bad as you anticipated and will be way more likely to finish it.

7. Plan a reward for yourself

If you’re tackling something essential that’s boring you to death, try planning a treat that you can look forward to rewarding yourself with once you’ve finished. This could be planning a date with a friend or ordering in your favourite food. Linking a positive reward with something less exciting will increase productivity and encourage you to do it again.

8. Cultivate a mindfulness practice

Finally, learning how to turn off the noise in your mind and stay focused on challenging days will be a game changer, and the science is there when it comes to demonstrating how effectively meditation will do this for you. Meditation literally changes the brain and clinical studies show that a regular practice will boost motivation, significantly reduce stress, and provide you with clarity and focus, creating room for new energy and ideas.

Motivation produces emotion, but discipline produces results. If you can incorporate the above tactics that work for YOU, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the art of motivation!

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