What To Do When You're Motivated

We all naturally find brief moments of motivation. We wish we felt them more often because it’s in these moments that we follow through on all the things we need to do, and have the courage we need to take action on big, bold, life-giving things we’d otherwise hesitate to do.

There’s a version of this that happens at the beginning of every year. We look forward into all the possibilities of the New Year. We feel inspired to make life changes that bring us closer to the life we see for ourselves, and start the year becoming that person.

That is until we’re a few weeks in, the motivation wears off, and we’re right back to where we used to be. When we feel inspired we can step up our game, but when that goes away we revert right back into our previous level. 

And the reason is - nothing changed about your environment, only how you were showing up in it. In the short-term you can overcome the natural pull of life, but eventually its unrelenting force will pull you back. 

In other words, when you no longer have the will power to sustain a higher level of performance, you fall back into your default patterns that are the natural byproduct of the environment you’re in.

So what should you do when you’re feeling motivated? 

The short answer is - Take action in ways that permanently shift your environment. 

Rather than using your temporary spike in will power and motivation to take the desired action, work up the courage to do something else that locks in doing the desired action in the future. In doing so you change the forces influencing your life and make positive, consistent, healthy action more likely to happen.

And here’s what that has looked like in my life: Waiting in line to order food, I told my wife I’ll be ordering something healthy. A quick sentence locks in a future congruent decision. When I decided to write the first draft of my book, I emailed da mentor telling him to expect it done by a certain date. I got it done. Even on social media, with the bold actions I’m taking toward my mission I post about them before I do them, which holds me accountable to completing it.

This is what makes motivation last. Instead of just feeling motivated today, you leverage it today so that it serves you every step moving forward. You get it to work for you when it’s no longer present because of the way it shifted your environment around you.

So if you’re feeling motivated today, as we’re soon to begin a New Year, do something that capitalizes on how you feel so that it serves you all year long. 

And the best thing I can recommend to do that, something that helps you completely revolutionize your health habits and make daily progress on your biggest goals for the year, is to register for the 21 Day Year Of Follow Through Challenge. 

If you’ve been spending a lot of time on your personal development, trying to be more consistent and productive on a daily basis, but you’re not as far along as you think you should be… - this is what you’ve been missing. Click the link in the description or visit www.newyearforgood.com to register for the 21 Day Challenge - we start on Monday January 5th!

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