Motivation

I posted a link on Facebook a few days ago about the TODAY Show’s 10,000 pound weight loss challenge.  They are posting daily tips and information to help guide people through their weight loss journey.  Their first posting really struck a chord with me.  It talked about the idea that unless you are PERSONALLY motivated, you’ll have a hard time achieving success in weight loss (and/or maintaining weight loss).

I know what they mean.

Ice cream = temptation!  Small bowl = controlled portion :)

I’ve been struggling for the past several months with personal motivation.  On the one hand, I am a super motivated person.  Show me an interesting race and I’ll sign up, participate and probably even finish well.  On the other, ask me to do one simple thing like try and skip dessert a few times a week and it’s like asking a three year old to give up their favorite blanky.  It’s not going to happen.

I do absolutely agree that you have to be personally motivated to make real change.  If you decide you want to lose weight to satisfy someone else or some ideal you’re just not into, you’ll eventually tire of working towards a goal you don’t have a vested interest in.  When I learned several years ago that my LDL cholesterol was high (and I was already overweight), my personal motivation SOARED through the roof.  I put 200% effort into every healthy initiative I wanted to tackle.  However, once you achieve success, sometimes the next logical feeling is “now what.”

The “now what” is this: working on good health and wellness is a full time job.  It’s a job well worth doing.  If you want to have the opportunity to live a longer life, a life with your significant other, your kids, your family, your friends and those important people around you, then it’s important to take your health seriously.  If you want to sleep better at night; if you want more energy in your day for yourself, your family and your job; if you want to significantly decrease your risk of chronic illness and other disease; if you want to feel good inside and out, then it’s time to take your health seriously.

While I may be struggling with personal motivation to achieve all my goals, I don’t forget the core foundational information I know about good health and wellness.  I don’t give up on every meal and eat poorly.  I don’t give up on exercise if I miss a day or two.  Just because I didn’t drop a size last month or I ate dessert every day this week, it doesn’t mean I’m not healthy.  The point is that good health and wellness is a journey, one that will have its share of bumps and bruises.  Every plan needs tweaking every now and then.  Every person could benefit from a fresh set of goals or inspirations when the current ones are achieved.

Maybe this isn’t the right time of year (after we just set our resolutions!) to talk about struggling once a goal is achieved :). I think it’s better to be informed and set expectations now, so that you can transition from one stage of health and wellness to the next one.  I am very appreciative of the health and wellness knowledge I have so that I know WHY I want to continue achieving my goals.  In the past, if I hit a snag in trying to be healthy, then I’d just give up, sometimes for a long period of time.  I know now that doesn’t do me any good.

My ultimate goals are still the same in health and wellness.  That is enough personal motivation to keep me on the wagon.  In order to get those few, challenging goals I set forth for myself, I have to find that drive and reason to give my 200% effort again.  It’s that feeling of finding that last check point in an orienteering meet or sprinting the last quarter mile of a long run – somewhere inside you have to call in the favors and ask yourself to dive deep and give it your all.

How do you find “your all?”  What personal motivators do you have for living a healthy lifestyle?  What struggles do you face in trying to achieve your goals?  Remember that you need to have personal motivation in order to effectively and efficiently achieve a goal that will last.  If you do reach the “now what” point, ask yourself what you can achieve next?  Don’t think that you can’t dream bigger!  If you had the power and drive to reach your first set of goals, I know you can achieve your next goals!

Miss FitGab