Motivation-The key to any wellness program!

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground  —Theodore Roosevelt

My goal for the next few weeks is to inspire you to join me on a New Years Day Resolution 5k Run/Walk.  Now I understand some of you may be sitting on the couch reading this thinking “How in the world am I going to do that?! I can’t even walk ___(a mile, around the block, etc you fill in the excuse)”  Well NO WORRIES!  We are gonna do this together.  In the next few weeks I’m going to be posting weekly information to help you get started and stay on track.  Who knows you may be talking about running a full marathon together next year?!

So to get started, I thought what better way to begin than with a discussion about motivation and intent.  I believe they both truly go hand in hand and both are crucial to beginning any wellness/exercise program.

Intent is the reason for the change.  WHY are you doing something?  It’s impossible to find the motivation to continue working towards the change if you don’t have a true personal connection to the reasons for it in the first place!  Dig deep and find the true reason you want a change.  It may even help to stand in front of a mirror and talk to yourself.  Write down any reasons/thoughts that come to mind.  It may help to sit with this for a moment to really dig as deep as possible.  You want to discover the real reason for wanting this change.  Once you have that list take the top reasons that really hit you and write a full intention for your practice/change.  For example—I will be run/walking a 5k on Jan 1, 2019 because I deserve to be healthy….my dogs and I deserve this time together….etc.

Once you have that sentence(s) post it EVERYWHERE!   I mean it!   Write it down and put it on your phone, bathroom mirror, near your computer.   The simple act of writing the words out helps to commit yourself to this intention and the daily reminders keeps the intention fresh in your mind.  It’s a lot easier to come up with excuses for not doing something when you forget why you are doing it!

Fast forward to a few weeks when real world issues start creeping in.  You know what I mean–shorter days, warm comfy couch, sleeping in, snowy cold days!  All these things present as little obstacles and excuses that can really test you and maintain the motivation to keep going.  Sometimes the little games you play with yourself even derail you completely if you let em.  So how do you battle them and stay motivated to reach your goal?

For me it’s simply breaking the big goal into short term and long term goals and setting up a reward system.  Remember SMART?  (Specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound) .  When setting your goals make sure they can follow this format.  This process also really involves you writing everything down and posting the goals in a place where you can see it.  Personally, I keep 2 small white boards on my desk.  1, larger board, keeps track of my monthly goals and a second, smaller board, lists my top daily smaller goals needed to accomplish to work towards a weekly goal listed at the bottom of the board.  So as you can see, I need goals broken down into daily, weekly, and monthly segments.  You may not need this kind of breakdown and should figure out what works best for you!  What is important to staying motivated is that you have set up  process for yourself that you can monitor and track achievable success.

Then don’t forget to reward yourself for that success!!!  I also want to repeat myself—reward your success!  I didn’t saw punish your failure or drawbacks.  Stay as positive as possible and maintaining a positive reinforcement approach is the best way to stay motivated and continue along a journey.  Some days that success my be smaller than other days but celebrate any effort and step in the right direction!  If you do encounter a major drawback, use that situation as a challenge for yourself to find another approach.  Be creative!

So lets start the New Year resolution to get into shape early and start this year by walking/running/biking on January 1 to start this year off right.  Each one of us will have a different intention for doing this but we can all help keep each other motivated!  Who’s with me?!

Be sure to like and follow me on social media and let me know your goals.  It’s so much easier to stay motivated if you have someone with you and to be accountable to.