We all have moments when we get frustrated, lose momentum or feel stuck.
How many times when that occurs do people say, “You just need to get motivated!” The problem with motivation is that it functions on the idea that there is something wrong with you that you need to fix. The whole motivation paradigm is based on believing that if you just judge yourself enough, in the right way, you will improve. So essentially, you try to judge yourself into changing by turning up the dial on your self-criticism. Ouch! Apart from being really unkind to you, it’s also ineffective if you actually desire lasting change and momentum in your life.
After about a million times of creating the motivation/judgment cycle over and over, I realized if I truly desired to move forward in life, I would have to do something different. I noticed the times I felt most happy and able to accomplish things, were those when I felt inspired. I would feel energized and I could do a lot and it never felt like hard work! When I am inspired I am too busy having fun to judge me, and motivation isn’t even a consideration.
Inspired living is a much easier and fun way to create what you want in life and you can lead yourself there in 3 easy steps:
- Embrace what is different about you, don’t judge it!
When you don’t have enthusiasm or success with doing things the way everybody else seems to do them – are you truly failing, lazy or wrong? Or are you just failing to be like everyone else? What if you are just very different? The only thing you can truly be, is you. So don’t try to be like others, or do it the way everyone else does!
I grew up being told that when you find something you are good at, you should stick to it forever. As an adult, I became really interested in archery. I invested a lot of time and money and effort to master it. I loved it. A few months on, I lost all enthusiasm for it. At first, I tried to force myself to keep doing it, because I thought that was what I was supposed to do – you find something you are good at and you do it forever, right? Turns out, I am different! I don’t function that way. I’d had fun with archery and got everything I wanted to get out of it, and I was ready to move on to something else. What if it’s not wrong to change tracks, start things and end things as fast and as many times as you like? Be willing to let things go once they no longer work for you. Even if it’s been only 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days or 3 minutes! When I realized I didn’t have to stick to something just because other people said I should, the inspiration for new and fun things came my way almost instantaneously. I love doing lots of different things! Doing the same thing all the time doesn’t work for me.
What works for you? Have you been trying to stick to one thing when you would actually love to be doing 10 different things? What could you add to your life, just for the fun of it? Inspiration doesn’t come to those who are trying to do things the right way or follow the program from A to Z – it comes to those who are open to change, open to having fun and willing to choose what works for them, no matter how zany it seems to anyone else!
Read my next 2 steps in the full article on Fitfluential.com.
