Fire it up!

BY: COLLEEN LINDBERG 

Motivation, a word some of us use as fuel while others of us dread the word. It might be said that it’s been overused in business but also from life coaches who state “What motivates you?”. A lot of the time as people we aren’t really sure how to define it. What motivates me? What are you passionate about? What fuels you? What makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning and get on with the day? If you are anything like I was ten years, I had no idea. So where do we go from there?

Well here are some tips on how I found out what motivated me and how you can incorporate that into your life.

1) Get clear about what you want

Now, this might be the hardest thing to do because you aren’t really sure what you do want. So how I started with this, is that I figured out what I didn’t want. This helped me get clear about the things I didn’t want so I could eliminate the possibility. Sometimes we have to trick ourselves a bit by asking questions like “Well if you did know what you wanted, what would it be?” It’s a way to get the brain thinking a bit differently. Sometimes we know small things, those are a great start. Whatever you can get clear about will help you align this further.

2) At the end of your day do an inventory of what happened

This will help you on a daily basis see the great things in your life and also will allow you to see the thing that you want to change. When we do it daily, we can easily adjust course and plus we remember. Not sure about you but trying to remember how I felt last week is not going to happen. Also, incorporate gratitude. What I mean by that is looking for three things at the end of your day you can be grateful for. It doesn’t matter what it is, just being grateful can shift your state and help with motivation.

3) At the beginning of your day, before you get out of bed, before you check your phone, think about some things that make you happy. Your kids, grandkids, work colleagues, books you read, anything really. This will help you frame your mind to start the day in good spirits. Unfortunately, when we pop out of bed and start “doing” the day we allow others (social media) and our monkey mind (the negative thoughts) to take over if we don’t position the energy ourselves. It’s so important for us to take ownership of this aspect of our day for us.

Small things can help us shift our state and make us excited and more aligned with life. Our job as humans is to find them in the things, we do every day. Some days this will be easier than others. Keep this exercise at the forefront of your day and you will find every day you will be excited about things, which will lead you into a motivated life.