Cultivate your do not wait list today
Why not start this post about motivation with a motivational quote on the topic of motivation!
“Perhaps the eighth lie is that you have motivation – that you wake up and feel motivated everyday. The reality is that you do motivation. Ultimately, motivation is a set of habits and routines, guided by your values and your identity, that you carry out every day” (1).
This is a hugely valuable quote that addresses the problem of waiting for x to happen to start a new behaviour. We are all guilty of this and in all honesty, I get it! The bottom line is life is relentless. With all the demands of work, children, relationships, finances (etc) life so often gets in the way of our aspirations and goals and ultimately, we end up waiting for “the right time” to kickstart our new chapter.
The problem with this way of thinking, is that life rarely offers up opportune moments where things line up perfectly to start that project you’ve always dreamed of or to finally “get healthy”. The demands of life are consistent, and so to combat these ongoing challenges and time constraints we must proactively take action, putting small steps in place everyday to position ourselves back in the driving seat.
Brendan Burchard words this beautifully, stating “a new chapter always begins with a new way of thinking” (1) and this new way of thinking is exactly what we need to adopt in order to start making progress towards our goals.
With all that said, a fantastic place to start is to cultivate your “do not wait list”. For me, this looks like the below:
- Start writing on my blog a little everyday, even if this means spending no more than 10-15 minutes
- Engage in some form of exercise everyday – minimum of 30 minutes (besides my one rest day)
Walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps every day
It’s worth pointing out that I’ve deliberately started small here. When we experience bursts of motivation (as you hopefully are reading this post now) people have a tendency to overshoot, which will more often than not lead to failure. A great example of this is January fitness resolutions e.g., workout 5 times a week in 2023. Sure, you may start off working out 5 times a week for the first 2 weeks of January, or even throughout the first 4-6 weeks. But inevitably, life will get in the way of this routine, and rather than cutting back to a more sustainable workout load, people fall off the wagon completely.
Therefore, start small to begin with, engrain the habit into your daily routine and over time these small changes will lead to long lasting, significant results. Remember, motivation comes with action (no matter how small to begin with) and action over time, leads to results. The successes and results you experience from consistent daily action will keep you motivated to continue moving forward towards your goals.
Health Currency Challenges (HCCs)
- Write down your do not wait list and review this every morning.
- Make your do not wait list achievable, by starting small.
- Take action towards your listed goals everyday to cement the habit (no matter how small this action is).
- Start today and enjoy the results that follow.
References
- Burchard, B. (2017). High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way. Hay House.
