Working towards a health goal and making changes to daily routine is one of the hardest things to do.
As humans, we love predictability and comfort. When something mixes up our routine, we naturally want to fight against it.
It’s only natural to have times when you’re filled with motivation and times when you’re lacking it.
Despite this, there are things you can do when motivation is low to help reinvigorate that fire in your belly and get going again.
The tips below are what we use with our clients in Mind Body Fuel everyday. They work very well for them and can for you too.
But before I go further into these three tips, let’s discuss what motivation actually is and if you even really need it to reach your health goals.
The most simple definition of motivation is a desire to change. We build this desire through striving for self improvement. Wanting to achieve new things or change our circumstances in some way.
When we feel motivated, we move and take action toward the desired goal. When we don’t…
We procrastinate.
If you’re stuck procrastinating and want to move into taking action, try these helpful tips.
Here are three tips from our Mind Body Fuel program to consider today:
Watch the size of your goals
When goals are too big, seem unattainable or conflict with one another, we procrastinate and stay stuck in inertia.
To help build your motivation and drive action, try chunking down your big goal into smaller parts. To do this we suggest starting with your ‘Big Vision’…
That is where you would ideally like to be at the end of your journey.
The next step is to break that down into a 12 month goal that you feel is achievable in the next year.
And finally; 3 months goals. What do you need to achieve in the next 3 months to be on track to hitting your 12 month goal?
Keeping goals small and bite sized like this helps to improve motivation levels by knowing you’re working toward the bigger picture while giving you more wins to celebrate along the way.
Take breaks
Motivation is naturally something that comes and goes. As we discussed earlier, you WILL experience times of low motivation and that’s ok. To help avoid these lulls lasting too long it can be helpful to take small breaks along the way.
A great way to do this is to ‘break’ after each 3 month goal is achieved.
By a break we mean going out for a favourite meal, taking a weekend away where you’re not thinking about your health goals or having that second portion when you really feel like it. These small ‘indulgences’ can do wonders for keeping motivation high, long term.
It gives the ability to switch off and reset so you can come back fresh, motivated and ready to take the next short term goal.
Before you know it…
You will have hit your big vision goal and had FUN along the way.
Reconsider what you call a ‘win’
The final tip I want to share with you today is about expanding the typical definition of a ‘win’.
Particularly when it comes to a weight loss goal, often the ONLY thing we measure success by is weight loss (the number on the scale getting smaller) but…
Because weight loss doesn’t come off in a linear way, this can destroy motivation very quickly (and unnecessarily).
There are many other things that we would consider a win for our clients in Mind Body Fuel. Things like better quality sleep, increased energy, improved concentration, smaller body measurements and clothes fitting more comfortably.
Try adding these to your definition of a ‘win’ as well and when they happen, celebrate them!
To learn more about Mind Body Fuel and how our dietitian can help to fast track your health goals, book a free assessment call here http://www.happyapplenutrition.com.au