Self-Motivation

Oh, I don´t know if I can be bothered writing this!!

Only joking...although I have to admit I am feeling a tad tired today after an unusually poor night´s sleep, so I figure this is as good a day as any to write about self-motivation.

Perhaps the best way to look at this whole business of motivating ourselves, is to first of all ask what is stopping us from feeling motivated in the first place? It´s all too easy to flippantly blame “laziness” or “idleness” - we do love to beat ourselves up after all. But when you stop and think about it a little bit deeper, there is always something else going on beneath the surface.

For the most part, lack of motivation usually stems from fear; fear that we will be unable to cope with something, or won´t be able to complete it; fear that we will fail or do a bad job; fear that it won´t work out quite as we expected and we will have to admit we were wrong; fear that people will laugh at us and we´ll look silly. But as Stephen King says (and I am paraphrasing here) “getting started is the hard part, after that the rest is easy”.

So, let´s get started!

I find Qi Gong exercises the best to get me motivated, but anything that gets the energy flowing around the body and the mind is good – a quick boogie in the lounge to an uplifting tune, a jog around the block, a shower, scalp massage – whatever works for you, but it should be something you enjoy that´s going to make you feel good. Couple the activity with (yes, you guessed it) affirmations – something along the lines of “I am filled with motivated energy. I am charged with energised chi,” and within a very short space of time – less than 5 minutes – you´ll be starting to feel a slight buzz of enthusiasm.

Next, visualise yourself having done whatever it is you were so un-motivated to do, feeling chuffed to bits with yourself and telling someone you care about “you know what? I really wasn´t in the mood, but once I got started, it was easy and I loved every minute.” Try to feel as strongly as possible the relief, the pride, the excitement, the happiness, the sense of achievement you´ll feel...as this is true motivation. We all want to feel like that as much as possible, don´t we?

Having said that, there are inevitably times when we absolutely do not want to do a particular thing and sometimes this has nothing to do with motivation at all. Sometimes, it simply might not be right, might not be in our best interests or for our highest goods to do a certain thing at a certain time. It´s important to tell the difference. When our inner voice is advising us against doing something, the message will be calm and soft with an overriding sense of easiness about the decision. Putting a note in our planner to remind us to do it another day feels like the natural, sensible thing to do and almost immediately, we will feel prompted to do something else – something that will prove to be a more constructive and appropriate use of our time and energy at that moment.

In other words, follow where your inner voice and your energy is leading you. Go with the flow and you won´t go far wrong. As my hubby is fond of saying “don´t yin when you should yang and don´t yang when you should yin”.

Wise words indeed!

Until next time....Namaste.

:)