There is something about the new.
It’s fresh, it’s shiny, it is limitless – bursting with potentiality.
When a new year rolls around, we place all our hopes and dreams on what could be. There is magic to that. It’s as if we’ve been given permission to dream big, be expansive, and charge through our barriers.
But there’s often a gap between our dreams and our reality.
In the second week of January, the year is no longer new. We’ve gone back to our timeworn habits and our old selves. We start to wonder, is change even possible? We start to believe those voices that said, “people can’t change.” We’ve fallen into the gap. Our motivation is zapped. It may be dark, or rainy, or cold outside. We wait for that thrilling feeling of motivation. And wait. And wait.
Where has the motivation gone? Motivation gets lost in our busyness, old habits, fatigue, overwhelm, and desire for convenience.
Here’s a little secret: ACTION PRECEDES MOTIVATION. We can’t wait until we feel motivated to move forward. It is our prerogative to move forward. There are days when hitting the snooze button seems like the best choice. But how might that day change – how might your perspective shift – if you did the hard thing? What if, instead of hitting snooze, you rolled out of bed and followed through with a life-affirming habit?
Here are some tips on how to stay consistent and follow through with new, healthy habits.
- Get clear on your why and your vision for yourself and your life. Keep this vision front of mind by writing it down, saying it out loud, and thinking about it several times daily. Reinforce, at every possible moment, that you are a person who does this new thing.
- Personify the negative or limiting beliefs roaming through your thoughts. Give that voice a name. Tell it to stand aside, get in the passenger seat, or hit the road. Let it know that you are in charge.
- Prep to do that new habit beforehand. Put it in your calendar as an appointment. Do you need special clothes to do it, like workout clothes? Set them out the night before. If it’s drinking water when you wake up, set out your water bottle before bed. Maybe it’s meditating and/or journaling – set up the space you’ll use to make it attractive and comfortable for you. Your brain is always looking for cues and clues about what to do and how to think. You have the power to be your own influencer.
- “Embrace the suck,” as David Goggins says. Don’t feel like it? DO IT ANYWAY. When we do hard things, we are creating new neural pathways in the brain. The fastest way to get unstuck is to jump in and do things even – or especially – when they are hard.
I often hear people say they lack willpower or self-control. You have a choice in how you perceive yourself. Don’t waste your precious time by beating yourself up – life is too short! Our society is set up to keep us where we are. We are surrounded by convenience, immediate gratification, and seductive imagery. Your brain loves the easy, comfortable, and safe. Doing the hard thing, no matter its size or importance, can take us out of that loop, and show us what we are truly capable of. The world – and our lives – expand in proportion to the risks, failures, and steps outside of our comfort zone we are willing to make.
When you hear that alarm jolting you out of your reverie in the morning, don’t wait for motivation to rouse you out of bed. Take action and watch motivation follow.