Motivation & Finding Your "Why"

Motivation is a tricky one isn’t it?!

It’s probably a little ironic that I’m writing a blog on motivation and right this minute I feel like I have no motivation to write a blog! But that’s how it works, I guess. Motivation is a tricky beast, isn’t it? It ebbs and flows, comes and goes and is very unpredictable.

Whether or not that’s:

Motivation for a healthy diet

Motivation to get fit

Motivation to find a new job

Motivation to start a business

Motivation to get out of bed

Motivation to turn off social media

WHATEVER end goal you have sometimes that little motivational beast can just run away from us. And a lack of motivation can leave us feeling all kinds of feelings. Lazy, unproductive, time wasting, procrastination. Sound familiar?

no motivation- so taking a rest to stare at the sun!  

My learning with motivation is that it truly shows its face when you are feeling the least motivated. Sounds counterintuitive. But in those down moments, by pushing on and sometimes the act of just starting helps us to begin to tap into our motivation. We also don’t need to make everything perfect first time around AND we can take breaks, that’s not lazy, it’s helpful!

Let’s use this blog as an example. My motivation is low today, but I am writing the blog anyway. You guys won’t read my first draft, you probably won’t even read my third draft by the time I press publish. That’s because I took small steps, and I took breaks.

Step 1 - Start the blog

Step 2 – refine the blog x 2

Step 3 – publish

These things all happened at different times and on different days. Breaking the task down into smaller steps helped me to push through and get it done.

My friends, THAT’S motivation. The drive to push through even when you don’t fancy it because your reason ‘why’ is bigger than you reason not.

I love writing my blogs and I feel like they give me a way to share more of myself with you as well as hints and tips that so many of you tell me you use. That’s my "why". I push through because my why means more to me than not doing the work at all.

pushing through on my run!

For motivation to become apparent we can break things down into small and manageable steps. So, if we don’t feel the motivation to do step 1, it’s ok because it’s small and bite sized, potentially easy to achieve, so once it’s done, we instantly feel more motivation and energy to do step 2. We get the ball rolling as they say! And once momentum kicks in, well momentum fuels momentum!

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones” Confucius

In class this month we will be exploring motivation by connecting with the Yogic concept of Tapas. Tapas is our internal fire, drive and discipline. The idea of overcoming obstacles through practice and small steps to create transformation and growth. AKA motivation.

We will be working with this fire by introducing postures, breathwork and some visualisations.

So let’s tap into your "why" – Wellness Activity

1.        Start by picking a goal or habit that you are feeling demotivated about right now

2.        Write this goal in the middle of a piece of paper

3.        Take 3 deep breaths – maybe even a Ujjayi breath (check out my insta for a tutorial on this later this month)

4.        Around this word, scribble all the reasons WHY you want to reach this goal or stick to this habit. What are the short term and long term benefits? How will it make you feel? etc

This is allowing you to discover your "why" and will give you focus whenever motivation gets low.

Push through and the energy will eventually return, I promise- it always does.

Let me know how you get on <3

Love, Tash xx