M Words

Motivation.

A thing that can be found… and just as easily lost.

It can be a picture in your mind that gets you out of bed in the morning, or a tangible thing, an outfit hanging on the wall. Whatever your motivation is, keeping it is all that matters.

This is about the time of year that previously motivated people start discarding their New Year’s Resolutions in favor of that last piece of cake, or an extra hour of sleep instead of the gym. It’s hard to stay motivated, especially in light of a laundry list of resolutions, most of which are too lofty to be attainable.

Pledging to eat a strict diet of only nuts and berries? Eh… probably not going to keep that one.

Pledging to get up every morning and go to the gym? Again, you’re probably not going to make that one %100 either. And most people, when they fail once… give up.

Regardless of what you need motivation for, it’s important to find and keep it. Or at least keep the momentum going once you’ve started.

Courtesy of hannahcharlottedesigns

Motion

Ever heard of the Law of Inertia… that whole, “A body in motion tends to stay in motion?”.

Remember to Stay in Motion.

I do not mean literally. “Motion” can be any teeny tiny step that take you toward achieving your goal. Most of you did not resolve to do “x” by January 30th. So why the rush to get it done yesterday?? TAKE YOUR TIME.

Did you pledge to write more in 2012? Cool. But starting out the year by writing a post every.single.day. is going to ensure that you are going to burn out fast. Spend an extra 30 minutes a week (a day? a month?) writing. Congratulations. You wrote something. The End.

Once it becomes second nature to do that one small thing? Do something bigger!  Just keep working on it… and know that you are checking off little boxes in your life and MOVING FORWARD. If you don’t take baby steps, you are going to fall on your ass. And then feel horrible about it and stop moving forward at all. I may be moving at a turtle’s pace with my goals… but do you remember who won that race?

Moderation.

Like I said… even if you take baby steps, they are still steps. You do not need to LEAP everywhere. If you did, you’d look like an idiot and people would laugh at you. You may want to lose 20 pounds in two weeks by eating nofat/nodairy/nonothing… but I guarantee you that you will FAIL. With a big fat capital F.

Eat in moderation, lose weight in moderation, work in moderation, sleep in moderation, drink in moderation (ummmm, most of the time anyway)… All of this? Makes you feel HAPPY! Satiated by food, wine, and life in general. (You should LOVE in excess, but that’s a different post.) And I bet if you do all this? You might actually lose some weight… slooooowly. (But that’s the only way you’re going to keep it off, right?)

You are going to be more productive for those little steps. Pledge to clean the house more? Nuking the whole thing from top to bottom is exhausting. Take it slowly and one task at a time, and you’ll find that you can actually DO it… most every day… until it becomes second nature to get up and wipe off your bathroom countertops after you finish getting ready. It’s TOTALLY DOABLE. (Or at least my husband hopes so.)

Make Yourself Happy

Isn’t that usually the goal of a resolution? To do or complete something that makes you better or happier? Then why would you set yourself up for failure?

We are only human. Infallible. Imperfect. We ALL screw up.

So stop taking this all so SERIOUSLY and just work on making yourself happy. One day at a time.

Move forward with your motivation in your mind, but not so fast that you trip and fall on your face…

And most of all, don’t give up.

You have 366 days and you can TOTALLY do this.