How to stay motivated
Why discipline and your daily habits make all the difference
“Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.”
John C. Maxwell
Recently, I was asked the question, “How do you stay motivated to keep going?”
As I started to answer, I realized it was a complicated question because sometimes I don’t feel motivated at all, yet I keep going anyway.
For example, this morning I didn’t want to get out of bed to do my morning yoga and journaling. It felt cozy under the covers and the thought of rolling over and going back to sleep was really appealing.
But I got up anyway to move my body and do my writing.
Why is that?
I think it comes down to motivation vs. discipline.
Motivation is your “big why”; it’s that driving force that pushes you to do something. It’s what initially gets you started and why you’ll start new habits (i.e., New Year’s resolutions)
Discipline is the result of your daily habits, that consistent behaviour you purposefully do to help you achieve your goals.
Sometimes, our “big why” gets pushed to the background and we forget about it for a while (like what happened to me this morning) but if we’ve made the effort to create supportive daily habits (i.e., meditation, movement, journaling, etc.), we become disciplined, and those habits help us stay on course.
Not convinced?
Think about some of your daily habits, i.e. brushing your teeth, driving to work, feeding the cat, etc. You do these things at particular times throughout the day and they’re part of your routine.
I bet there are some days that you don’t feel particularly interested or motivated to do those things, but you do them because you are disciplined and know there are consequences if you don’t do them.
This is good news because you can use this same discipline to intentionally create new daily habits that will help you build the life you want, and keep you going even when you don’t feel particularly motivated.
My morning routine helps me start my day with intention and gets me into action. Usually, once I get up and get going I begin to feel motivated.
It all starts with discipline and intention.
What new daily habits are you ready to start?
If you’d like some ideas, I have a free booklet filled with mindful practices to help you create new daily habits to motivate and support you. It’s called Mindset Magic 101 – The Daily Magic 3 M’s and it’s yours to download here:
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"I felt at complete ease with Sharon from our first conversation. She has a wonderful, gentle but firm way that made me focus on my thoughts / feelings so I could remove / change to move forward with a completely different feeling to what felt like obstacles. It was great having regular coaching that gently kept me accountable to actioning and moving towards my goals. Sharon has vast experience in so many areas, I felt that makes her an amazing coach.”
— Michelle Carney, East Galway, Ireland
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