How to Stay Motivated

Some days I wake up motivated, energised and ready to get going.  Other days I struggle and I don’t feel that excited to do what needs to get done to keep me on track to achieve the outcomes I’ve set out.  On the days I’m motivated, it’s easy.  Things are always easy to do when you’re motivated to do them.  Conversely, the simplest, quickest and seemingly easiest task can seem impossible to get going on when there’s a lack of motivation.  I know you’ve been there; there’s a little task that you know you should get done, but not for love nor money can you get yourself around to doing it on that particular day!  You distract yourself with other tasks or just procrastinate in front of the telly or feel tired and sleepy.  In short, something, which would take 30 minutes when motivated, doesn’t get done.  In fact it doesn’t even get started.

Well the good news is that something can be done.  There are ways of managing motivation.  Motivation is simply a chemical effect on the body produced by subconscious reactions in the brain, which in turn has been triggered by a stimuli in the conscious mind, for example a thought or neuro-associated external trigger (a learnt response).  Often motivation, or a lack of, is seemingly out of our control.  We say we’re feeling de-motivated or lacking focus or energy as if this is something that happens ‘to us’ as opposed to something that happens ‘in us’ and ‘by us’.  We can influence the release of chemicals in our brains and bodies and I don’t mean by drinking coffee, alcohol, eating junk food or taking drugs.

Take a moment to understand the link between what you are ‘feeling’ and the process that went into that ’feeling’.  The conscious mind (the thinking mind) is full of chatter.  Often I’ve referred to this as the ‘Eastenders brain’ as it’s full of chatter, drama and on the whole, a lot of meaningless ‘waffle’.  The subconscious sits there listening to all this ‘chatter’ and when required (due to triggers from pre-learnt experience) it gets involved. It does so by producing a prescribed reaction to a particular thought/stimuli/association.  We then ‘feel’ this in the form of a chemical reaction.  And that, my friend, creates the experience you are having right now, whether good or bad, excited or miserable.

We can influence our experience but we can’t control the chemicals.  We have to get involved in the process a little ‘up stream’ at the thought stage.  Where we focus our attention will determine what our subconscious is analysing and responding to.  If we’re focussing on the negatives of a situation we can’t be surprised when we feel negative responses from our subconscious.  These ‘negative’ reactions will release chemicals into our system, which are specifically designed to move us away or prevent us from progressing towards perceived negative or threat situations.  It’s this primary response to threat situations that got our species to this juncture in our evolution.  It’s meant to be a powerful driver and as such once these responses (typically hide, attack or run away) are flooding our system we will struggle like crazy to override them or work against them.  The opposite is also true and if we develop the habit of looking at the positive aspects of what we are trying to achieve or do then equally our bodies have been fitted with a powerful set of chemicals designed to push us towards favourable and pleasurable actions or outcomes.  When these ‘positive’ responses are flooding our system, motivation comes easy and energy is often abundant.  If we therefore train ourselves to keep positively focussed towards our outcomes them taking action should be easy or at least, a lot easier.

However, some days it’s just tough.  It’s tough to focus on the positive and forget about the potential risks or discomfort involved.  On these days taking action will be difficult.  I’ve accepted that sometimes it just seems impossible to override the subconscious’s lack of enthusiasm or ‘buy in’ to what I’m trying to achieve.  The reasons for this could be numerous.  It could be I’m struggling to keep positively focussed.  It could be the subconscious is fighting very hard that day to ‘keep me safe’ based on previous learning.  Whatever it is, I’ve learnt that on these days to just slog it out.  If I start to take the action anyway, forcing myself to some extent, my subconscious eventually get’s the message that “we’re really doing this”.  Whilst it can be tough to get going, inevitably the subconscious will conclude that if we’re doing this, it will be ‘safer’ if it gets on board and releases those chemicals required to make the going easier.  A great example of this for me is exercising.

I’ve challenged myself to exercise daily for 365 days and it’s been fascinating observing my subconscious reactions to this.  Some days, I’m all buzzed and energised and raring to go.  Other days I feel like a 90 year old man and I literally have to drag my backside out for a run or whatever else I’m doing that day.  I’ve found on those days that if I just ‘slog it out’ a little, it’s just a mater of time until the energy flows and the going get’s easier.  This is the case for any undertaking and will be the same for you as it is me.

Don’t let your subconscious dictate what you will and won’t do.  Remove the word ‘can’t’ from your head and do what I tell all my clients and realise that it is just chemicals.  Push through and literally minutes later you’ll be charging ahead wondering what all the fuss was about.  You can take charge and become the boss of your life.  If you do this consistently, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve and how seemingly easy it is to achieve it.  Your subconscious is a massively powerful yet ridiculously basic tool.  Understand what’s going on and you can take charge of your experience and in doing so, massively influence your life.  The really good news is that after a period of time of overriding the ‘lack of motivation’ experience, the subconscious soon realised that what you say, goes and what you intend to do, happens.  It will get on board and be a superbly powerful instrument for progress.

This understanding has enabled me to make commitment to myself and follow through on things I never thought possible and for the first time ever, stick to them.  The results are that I get to design, create and live the life of my choosing.  There is no greater achievement than that of living a life of your own personal choosing.

Enjoy the journey when it’s easy and dig in and slog it out when it seems not to be.  The result will be constant progress and over your lifetime, immeasurable personal growth and positive gain.

Good luck.

George. live Bigger | Brighter | Brighter