Motivation

I often find myself wondering why there are so many people who struggle to do the things necessary to be healthy. I am passionate about living a healthy lifestyle and being the best I can be, so it can be hard for me to remember that not everyone has the same mentality that I do. Everybody is in a different situation. Different schedules, different stresses, different means to their goals. This means that motivation will also vary from person to person. I cannot tell anyone where to find their motivation, but I can share some places where I find motivation, and hope that it might inspire someone else to find theirs.

I am motivated by my appearance. It is not necessarily something that I like to admit to, either, but from a realistic perspective, people care about appearance. Also, I am a female..so naturally, I want to look good. I have had personal experience with having a low self-esteem. I am my own worst critic. I have not always thought that I am pretty...in fact I thought myself quite plain throughout most of my teenage years. This motivates me because when I like the way I look, or when I feel like other people like the way I look, I feel confident and more comfortable. It helps me free up my mind for more important things that worrying about how my shirt fits, or making sure the waist of my pants covers my love handles, or who is going to see that giant (but, probably tiny) zit on my face. 

GOALS. Making goals motivates me. Setting specific goals, creating a timeline, logging my progress, seeing results, and repeating the process again. For example, I have a fitness competition coming up in March. I know when it is, I know what I want to do by then. I am keeping track of everything that I am doing to prepare for that event (food, exercise, sleep, body composition). I am paying attention to the details, so when I set my next goal, I will know what, where, and how I need to change. Never stop making goals. You wont end up where you want to if you haven't identified your destination.

Picking someone to look up to, or multiple people is also something that helps me to determine what my goals are. I have strengths and weaknesses. I use role models to motivate me to turn my weaknesses into strengths. I find people who have those strengths to lead me to achieve my goals. I find people I can read about, look at images of, and if I am lucky I find people who I can actually get advice from!

My health motivates me. When I have been at my most healthy state (so far...I'm not done yet :)), I don't get sick nearly as often, or I recover more quickly. I have more energy. I notice that my health shows through my skin, hair, and nails (this is not weird...trust me). My aches go away (my knees in particular...). I don't feel like I am going to pass out at the top of a flight of stairs. I feel good. 

Living a long and full life motivates me. I want to be active and able to take care of myself as I age. I want to be able to do fun things into my old age. I don't want to live my life being sick or tired. I want to prevent the potential aches and pains of old age. My grandmother would say, "it's better to wear out than to rust out".  I want to make the most of every minute of my life...and make my life the most minutes.

I have found that motivation cannot simply be external. Yes, it is motivating to want to look good. Yes, other people can encourage me and motivate me. Yes, it is motivating to feel my pants fitting better (or beginning to fall off...on some days). But, ultimately, I have to want it for myself.  I need the motivation to come from within.  For health, for happiness, for longevity. 

I am motivated by my desire to love myself. I want to love my heart, my kidneys, my brain, my skin, my feet, my blood, my personality and everything that I am. I want to be able to smile at myself in the mirror every morning because I know that I am valuable. When my body feels good, I can take better care of my mind and my attitudes. I can wake up and say, you are beautiful and today is going to be a very good day. I am not perfect at this. I can be very hard on myself (I am human...) and sometimes I ruin my own days. But, I have noticed that the more I love my body (by living a healthy lifestyle), the happier I am and the less critical I am of myself. 

These are a few things that motivate me. There are days (or weeks, or months) when I find it hard to pay attention to these motives, and on those days I will usually bribe myself ;) If I eat clean for a week, I can get a new color of nail polish (one of my many small obsessions...). If I go to the gym every day for a month I can get a new pair of tennis shoes (mostly thanks to my sweet husband). If I get all of my cardio in during the week, I can spend more time at the climbing gym (and this is my weakness...).

What motivates you? FIND YOUR MOTIVATION. Be healthy, be happy. Be happy, be healthy.