You're super pumped. In fact you're so motivated Tony Robbins will be calling you for advice and there's nothing in this world that could get between you & your new goal. You're un-freaking-stoppable!
Then, somehow life gets in the way. You're sensible friend or mother warns you not to get your hopes too high (because they love you & don't want to see you get hurt) or that negative work mate scoffs (because they're an a-hole who loves making people feel as crap as they do). And before you know it that exciting big goal is hanging out with those dirty dishes you didn't have time to rinse because you were way to busy watching motivational clips on YouTube & writing your gratitudes, meditating, and fantasising about how amazing your life is about to become.
That's me every time motivation kicks in, except when I snap out of it my whole house looks like a crime scene.
I’ve just come from a super fun event with a few hundred like-minded, highly motivated happy souls ready to take all our new knowledge into the real world & kick some serious goals. The room was electric! Then I got home & reality kicked in instead.
So how do you stay motivated? The simple answer is...you don't. Motivation relies on external factors in the form of either a threat (like getting fired) or a reward (like ice cream), because you usually only need motivation to do something you don’t really want to do. Which sounds like a complete contradiction right, because that awesome idea was inspired & came from within so what the hell happened?
A mentor of mine Ben Kelly helped me get this one. It’s because I didn’t have clarity on what my values were. When you do something that’s of high value to you personally, you don’t need motivation because it’s almost effortless, even if it seems so hard to others.
That’s why diets don’t work. You know the drill, you get all inspired after seeing someone you’d love to look like but then go and eat crap because it’s the weekend, or because enjoying that slice of chocolate cheesecake is more important to you than what you’re attempting to achieve by dieting. It’s clearly not something you value highly like it is to an athlete or a sports model. So even inspiration can be fleeting if it isn’t aligned with your core values.
The real trick to achieving big things is to get super clear on what’s important to you, (not your partner, your bestie or someone you wish you were more like so don’t even think about comparing your list to anyone else’s). What is essential in your life? What are you already doing that takes no motivation? That’s a clue to what you value. One of mine is writing. Family and travel are high up there too. Surfing isn’t. You’re not unmotivated at all. You just need clarity. Once you figure out what you absolutely must include in your life to be happy start focusing your time there. You’ll still have to do things you don’t enjoy but if it links to the things you’re aligned with you’ll do what it takes, and there’ll be much more ease in your life.