Everyone is motivated on January 1. The promise of the New Year and a clean slate beckons you. The rush of the holidays has passed and you are hopeful for the calmer weeks ahead. This is the time, you say. I can finally focus on me.
The first workout ALWAYS feels good. It makes your cheeks glow, your brain buzz with endorphins and gives you the energy you’ve been craving.
The first week without sugar ALWAYS makes you feel amazing. You don’t feel sluggish. The bloat goes away. You think, THIS is how I am supposed to feel.
All the good feelings are there. All systems are go. That is until the first deadline hits. Until the first time you’re asked to watch your grand-baby instead of go to the gym. Until the first time someone asks you to meet for brunch. You skip a workout. You have a mimosa and a cinnamon role. Motivation forgotten, you say what the hell and stop on the way home for a dirty chai latte.
You blame a loss of motivation.
Your motivation IS gone but you don’t lose it – you forgot to create it.
Motivation is made, not found, through a commitment to doing the little things every day. It’s about setting up systems of accountability to yourself or others if necessary. Motivation doesn’t come from your personal trainer or a Facebook challenge; it comes from your own inner coach.
I write this blog partly as a way to help create that coach. I want to give you the positive messages you need to hear until your own inner critic can be silenced. I’ve written a lot of blog posts over years on the subject of motivation, commitment and changing the way you approach your journey. There are too many for me to ask you to devote time each day to go back and read them all. (If you have, THANK YOU!) I know you’re time is valuable but I also know there are plenty of you who haven’t read my best stuff. I know that some of you may have read it but weren’t ready to HEAR it. There are a few of you who just got here and have no idea where to start.
That is why I wrote my new book, Motivation Is Made Not Found, just for you.
- A Food for Thought: These are ideas to ponder or questions to ask yourself. Use them to meditate on or journal about while you sip a cup of tea.
- An Action Step: You have to do the work. These are steps for you to take outside of the gym to set yourself up for success. They help you create support systems and structure for when you start to lose focus.
This is your plan to create inner accountability and commitment.
You can curl up with a cup of tea and read the book in its entirety on a Sunday afternoon. Then go back and take each chapter day-by-day or week-by-week. If you’re struggling with a particular challenge, like food and family or burnout, feel free to go directly to the chapter you need most right now. You can really read it any way you like so long as you read it AND pay attention to the assignment at the end each chapter.
Now is the time to get started moving forward again. (I’ll even make it easy by giving you a special price for the first 29 days.)
Motivation may get you started but it will go away the first time you stay up all night with a sick child or YOU end up fighting a cold. You’ve been there. We all have. It’s why we feel like we have to start all over again each January. The difference is this book will give you the nudge you need to get back on the horse when you fall off. It’s not a diet or exercise plan. It’s road map to keep you moving past the bump in the road. You know the one. That giant hump that shows up two or three weeks after you vow this will be the year to get in shape. That hump you just never seem to get past. That hump that every time you encounter it seems bigger and more challenging to overcome. This book is your helping hand to get over it and your guide to get beyond it.
The secret to unlocking your motivation and finding real fitness is committing to doing a little bit each day. That is how you turn this year into the last year you vow to get healthy and fit.
What are you waiting for? Not January 1 I hope? You’ll lose your special discount if you wait. The special price to celebrate the release ends February 29. (Bonus day for leap year!) Besides, there is plenty of this year left, plenty of time to make it THE YEAR you get control of your health and your life back.
