Motivation: A Counterintuitive Approach
If you feel yourself starting to lose motivation, here's some unsolicited advice that may help you get through it.
I’ve been maintaining my disciplined ways for some time now, and my commitment is to wake up at 3:30 in the morning, Monday through Friday, to either finish or work on my highest priority. The reality is, with a young boy (a baby girl on the way) and all the responsibilities throughout the day, I don't have any other option if I want to hit my goals. I'm not saying you need to get up ridiculously early to achieve your goals; this is just what I need to do based on my goals and schedule.
When I first started doing this, the first few days weren’t too bad, as I was excited to get the new routine rolling. After just a few days, though, I found myself trying to convince myself that "It's going to get easier" at night before going to sleep. I kept getting up, and I was annoyed that it wasn’t getting any easier. Those thoughts began to creep up in my head:
“You can sleep for another 15 minutes.”
“You can do that in the afternoon.”
“If you don’t rest, you won’t have energy for later.”
The excuses started to pile up.
I knew I had to change my approach.
So, over the last week and a half, instead of trying to get myself to believe it would start to get easier, I actually started doing the opposite. I began telling myself, “This is going to suck." And sure enough, waking up at 3:30 am does indeed suck... for the first 5 minutes. I’ve found that if I can make it 5 minutes after my alarm goes off, I’m good to go.
By telling myself the truth, I have a much better mental approach and more realistic expectations when I wake up in the morning. I'm not setting a trap for myself, thinking it will somehow magically get easier. I've been able to get so much more done every day, even if I only have 45 minutes to an hour to get things done.
My challenge to you is to tell yourself the truth about whatever your goals are. Embrace the challenge, and get excited to face those voices in your head every single day.
Have a great one!