How most people have got motivation wrong and how you can get all the motivation you need!

I am going to start by saying this, because if there is one thing I want you to remember after reading this post today it's this:

Motivation is not lost and found, motivation is created!

This means that when you learn how to create motivation, you can have that feeling whenever you want. How amazing is that!

After reading this post you will know several ways to feel motivated in an instant. Yes, I know you are excited about this. I am too!

You are also going to learn how to progress towards your goals no matter if you feel motivated or not. Because let's face it, even though we are motivated to reach our goals, we aren't always motivated to do some of the things that are required to reach those goals. I think that is true for all of us.

So you are going to learn 2 things in this post:

• How to create motivation whenever you want.
• How to progress towards your goals without motivation.

Let's start by how most people have got motivation all wrong. 

Before I learned how motivation works I used to think that motivation was just a feeling that comes and goes, and when we feel motivated it's easy to do something and when we don't feel motivated it's hard to do something. And it never occurred to me that I had power over that process. 

I looked at people who were highly disciplined and achieved amazing things in life, really hard things, and wondered why they were so much more motivated than me. I had thoughts like: "Why is it so much easier for them to do hard things?" "They must have different circumstances than me that makes it easier for them." "They are born that way." "They have more support than I do." 

I was dead wrong.
When I looked closer, none of those things were true.
It wasn't easier for them to do hard things. 
They had hard days. They had days they didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Some had less support than me. Many had way tougher circumstances than me. They had days when they just wanted to give up. 
But they didn't. They did it anyway. It was who they were. 

This got me thinking. How can we become more motivated, and how can we train ourselves to do hard things even when we absolutely don't feel like it?

The answer is that it's much easier than you think.

At least it was much easier than I thought. But it requires making succeeding and being motivated a priority. 

If you choose to continue to believe than it is circumstances and external factors that decide weather or not you are motivated and reach your goals, that is completely fine. Just know that those beliefs will continue to give you the same results you have gotten so far.

If, however, you choose to now throw those limiting beliefs out the window, and you are ready to take a whole different approach to motivation and creating behavior, then continue reading my friend..

5 super-secret steps to feeling motivated and reaching your goals (that aren't really a secret, but most people still don't do it)

1. Learn that it is never about circumstances and always about you. (You've done that one already, so let's move on - Check!)
2. Discover your DEEP WHY.
3. Visualize the future version of yourself.
4. Design your environment for success.
5. Implement micro-habits.

Let's do a brief overview of each step.
Number 1 we have already covered, so let's go straight to number 2.

Discover your DEEP WHY.

We say we want a lot of things but many of these thing are superficial goals. And superficial goals don't stick. Not because we don't want  to reach the goals, but because there aren't enough emotions connected to the goals. 

Emotions drive behavior. Yes, this is true even if you are the most logical, unemotional person on the planet, your emotions still drive you behavior. 

Many of us aren't connected to what we feel because we often distract ourselves from our emotions or live lives so hectic that we never take the time to just slow down and feel. This causes us to not really know what we want or why we feel the way that we do. We just go through the motions, and life at best feels OK, and at worst we are frustrated and miserable. 

Do the Deep Why exercise to find out what you truly want.

Simply think of an area of your life and ask yourself what you want to accomplish. 

When you get your answer, ask "why is this important to you?"

Do this 5-7 times to get to the bottom of what really drives your behavior. You should feel some feeling stir up inside when you hit the sweet spot.

Once you know your deep why, your reason to work hard to reach your goal, then you need to connect with it every single day.

Create a ritual for yourself.

Examples:

• Spend 5-10 min every morning writing down your goals and why it's important for you and how your life will change for the better.
• Take 2-5 minutes in the morning in front of the bathroom mirror and tell yourself out loud what you are going to accomplish and why.
• Talk to people in your life about what you are going to accomplish and how you are going to make it happen.

The more you connect with your goals, the more motivated you are going to feel.

Visualize the future version of yourself.

The strongest driver in the human behavior is the need to stay consistent with who you believe that you are.

In other word, our identity is the number one driver of our behaviors. And our identity is simply who we believe that we are. It has nothing to do with genetics or the truth, only what we believe. 

 And since our beliefs can change, so can our identity. One of the most powerful things you will ever do on your journey to create the life you want is to decide what kind of person you are going to become - Who is the FUTURE-YOU?

Close your eyes and visualize who you are in 1 year, in 3 years, in 10 years. How do you feel? What do you do? What does your life look like? What do you look like? What do your relationships look like? What have you accomplished? What is a normal day in your life? What are your daily habits? 

Once you see the person you envision yourself to be in the future clearly, you can start to reverse-engineer your plan. What habits does future you have that you can start implementing today to?

Connect with the future version of yourself every day for a boost of awesome motivation!

Design your environment for success.

Successful people aren't better, they just design their lives better. 

Have you ever eaten something just because it was there on the table, and afterwards you thought to yourself "Why did I eat so many of those? I don't even like them."

Or have you gone to the grocery store on the way home from a long day at work, told yourself that you were only going to buy a healthy dinner, and ended up walking out of the store with a frozen pizza, a soda, chocolate and a box of ice cream? (haha, I have..!)

THAT is the effect that our environment has on us. 

To think that we have the willpower to fight our environment 24/7 and win is just insanity, because the environment has shown us time and time again that it will win in the end.. Unless, we change the rules of the game!

Our environment is constantly trying to distract us and push us to make decisions that harm our short term and long term goals and happiness. But when we take the time to redesign our environment, then suddenly our environment is pulling us towards our goals instead.

So, how do you design an environment that sets you up for success?

• Make the behaviors that inhibit you from succeeding hard and uncomfortable to do.
• Make the behaviors that you want to implement easier and more enjoyable to do.
• Eliminate distractions.
• Implement reminders to do the behaviors you want to do more of.
• Hang out with people who will hold themselves and you to a higher standard.

Implement micro-habits.

Micro habits are so small they don't need motivation to implement. An example of a micro habit is; When I look in the mirror in the morning I will say "today is going to be an awesome day".

You don't need to feel motivated to do this, you can do it anyway, because it doesn't require much effort on your part. 

But the cool thing about micro habits is that once you have created a simple habit, you build a more advanced habit over time, by just adding a small micro-dose to your already existing habit time and time again. And before you know it, one year from now your life will look completely different. 

Some important points to make micro-habits work:

• Use the after/then or before/then statements to create your habit. After i (do this behavior), then I will (do this new behavior). You do this to attach the new micro habit to an already existing habit that you have. This makes it easier to create a new habit.
  Example: After I get into bed in the evening, I will think of one thing that I am grateful for that day.
  
  
• Make your micro-habits so small it feels ridiculous. 
  Most people start too big and then they end up being inconsistent. Make it small enough that you know you are going to do it consistently over time.
  
  
• Celebrate the little things. 
  When you are able to do your new habit, through yourself a little happy dance or at least tell yourself that you are doing a great job. Firstly, you ARE doing a great job when you are able to make changes, no matter how big or small. Secondly, when you celebrate you feel good, and when you attach good feelings to your new behavior you are going to want to do it more because it makes you feel good. (Yes, we are simple creatures, but we need to use that to our advantage!)

Wow! Thanks for sticking with me to the very end. You are awesome! Now you know both how to create motivation and how to make changes in your behavior even when you don't feel motivated.

You are now in control - and you can create the life you want for yourself.

Remember: Motivation is not lost and found, motivation is created!