6: How to Stay Motivated

Feeling that initial burst of motivation fade away? 🔥 In this episode of the Build Strong Women podcast, we're tackling the challenge of staying motivated, even when the going gets tough.

We'll explore practical strategies to keep your fire burning, including:

• The Power of Visualization: Learn how to "imagine the finish" to fuel your motivation.
• Reignite Your Routine: Discover how to refresh your habits and reignite your enthusiasm.
• Cultivate a Positive Mindset: Surround yourself with positivity and use affirmations to boost your self-belief.
• Remember Your Promises: Reconnect with your "why" and celebrate small victories along the way.

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Subscribe to the podcast so you can get the show right in your favorite podcast provider and never miss an episode! Also, please take a minute to RATE & REVIEW! It would mean the world to me! 

Sign up for Laura's weekly email: https://gracious-adventures.myflodesk.com/podcast

Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graciousadventures/

Subscribe to the podcast so you can get the show right in your favorite podcast provider and never miss an episode! Also, please take a minute to RATE & REVIEW! It would mean the world to me!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, I'm Laura Orlando and welcome to the Build Strong Women podcast. I believe as women that we are the role models for the next generation of girls. So how do we become the best role models for these young girls? We work hard to become the best version of ourselves, whatever that means to you. It's not easy. It takes work. It takes learning, trying new things, falling down and getting back up again. But that's what we do on the show. We dive deep into how we can grow on the inside. We will learn from women that are on the same journey as us. Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Build Strong Women podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited about our topic today, but I am on day two of a virtual learning day. It is after the school day and I just can't believe that I was home for another two days because of this weather. It's It was like negative 14 where I live and I just can't believe that I was home for another two days of teaching and I'm excited that I'm able to record this podcast today and really talk to you about how to motivate yourself. It's kind of funny because these past two days I've been feeling a little lazy I guess and this is a perfect topic to talk about because we need to have some motivation here and there and it doesn't always work. We don't always have So I'm excited to give you some tips and ideas for motivating yourself because we all can get in a slump sometimes. Okay, so I don't know if you've ever heard of National Quitters Day. It's actually the second Friday in January. So everybody makes like their New Year's resolutions, like I'm going to do this and all these goal setting things. And it has come to be that the second Friday in January is National Quitters Day. People lose motivation, lose willpower, lose motivation. Everything that they had at the beginning of the new year on this National Quitters Day and I know it's after this time but I always feel like you just need to have this motivation inside yourself and we don't always have that inside of us. It's really hard to stay motivated sometimes when we're excited about doing something like the beginning of a new year. It's really easy to stay motivated about what you want because it's new it's exciting the hard part is when you have to keep that motivation going you have to get up you have to do the things that you really don't want to do it gets hard and a lot of people don't want to push through that hard feeling and that uncomfortable feeling to get to the next step because you don't always see the progress you don't always see oh I'm doing all this work and let's see what has been done you can't really tell right away it takes time it takes consistency so we really have to find those little things that can help motivate us and push us through those hard times. Same with our goals that you set for yourself. Staying motivated after the excitement wears off is so hard to do. I'm going to share a few tips on how to motivate yourself and give you some ideas for when that whole excitement wears off because it happens to all of us. You aren't the only one. Every single person that sets a goal or has something that they're working towards can feel unmotivated at times and it's really really hard hard. You just have to push through. So I heard this amazing author, John Acuff, say this simple affirmation, and it was actually life-changing for me. I heard him say this on Instagram, so I wanted to share it with you because it is so good. So he says, don't imagine the start, imagine the finish. So I want you to take this affirmation into every little thing that you do. So getting up to work out is really hard, right? If you think about that alarm going off, you think about feeling so exhausted, getting dressed. If you go to a gym driving there when it's freezing cold and you just don't want to go, you'll hit that snooze button so fast and go right back to sleep because you're thinking about the start. You're thinking about how hard it is to even get there. But if you think about walking out Out of the gym, sweaty, you're done with your workout for the day and how proud you feel about doing it and how clear your mind is going to feel, you'll probably be more likely to get your butt out of bed and go to the gym. So how amazing will you feel when that workout is over? Think about that. That's what you need to focus on to stay motivated. Don't imagine the start. Imagine the finish. And this goes for anything that's hard or that sucks in your life. How will you feel once it's done, no matter what you're working on? So I am currently trying to write a book, and this is going to take me forever. I know it will, but it's okay. But it's not easy. It's really hard. It's really hard to be creative. It's really hard to get in that zone but I keep trying to imagine the finish line like I never thought in a million years that I would ever write or want to write a book absolutely not I never thought that in a million years but now I really do I imagining the finish and what I want to share is so passionate for me and means so much that I really want to do it so every time I think about okay sitting down to write I'm like oh my gosh what am I going to say today is it going to flow out of me is this going to be really hard because it's not easy so I try Thank you so much. positive and negative self-talk. He has some great books out there. I highly recommend listening to him. And he also has a podcast as well. And he's really big on setting goals and motivating you to reach your goals. All right, the next tip I have for you is combining something old with something new. So about six months ago or so, my kids started working out together in the basement. And it was really great at first. They were super excited about doing it together. But when the newness started to wear off, I told them, We need to add something new to get you guys excited about working out again together. So I told them to maybe make a playlist of their favorite songs to listen to when they were working out. And they really loved that idea. And they made a working out playlist together, which was really fun to watch them do this. So they incorporated something new into their routine. And it really got them excited and motivated again to work out together in the basement. It was really cool. So they... took that same old routine that they had been doing and they added something new and exciting. And that kind of changed things up. Sometimes we need to change things up a little bit and add a little spark and a little bit of flair into what we do on a daily basis because we have to keep up with the consistency. But sometimes that consistency gets boring and we lose motivation. So maybe try doing this with your routines that are really getting boring and you want to stay motivated about what you're working on. I know I have to fold laundry like we all do So I try to save like my favorite podcasts and things like that for when I fold laundry and I add something new that I'm excited to do. And I'm saying, I tell myself, I'm going to listen to this podcast when I fold laundry. I'm not going to listen to it before or after nothing. So during that mundane chore that I don't want to be doing, I added something exciting and new and fun to that chore. So what is something new you could add to something you are tired of doing and how can you change it up a help you get motivated again to get it done. Maybe make a new playlist for working out. Maybe it is finding even like a new outfit to wear to work out. Or if you are going to work every day and it's really bringing you down, how do I get motivated to go to work? You know, maybe pack a new lunch for yourself. Just change something up. Do something different. So really just thinking about taking something that's old and adding something new and exciting into it. Okay, my next tip is to surround yourself as much you can with positivity. And I mean this in every way. way. So I am not Miss Positive Pants all the time. Absolutely not. I really have to work on being positive and really work on my gratitude and really seeing the good in everything. I worry a lot about a lot of things. So being positive is really hard for me and I have to be very intentional. And one of the things I do every single day that has really changed my life, and you'll probably hear a is just starting my day every morning with gratitude. It really sets the tone for me and really gets me into a good place before I even start my day. And I want you to start thinking about things that you get to do. And I want you to use that phrase a lot. Just thinking of a few things that you get to do because you are so blessed can totally change your perspective on your life or when things get hard or you have to do things that you don't wanna do. Some examples may be, I get to get up and go to a job that pays me. I get to get up and work out because I have a body that lets me do this. I get to is a very, very powerful phrase that can help you and really change your perspective and keep you positive about the things that you don't want to do. It can really motivate you. Yes, I get to do these kinds of things. And I like to do my gratitude in a notebook. I recently created on Canva because I'm obsessed with Canva a planner that helps me organize my gratitude so I do my gratitude and my goals and I work on my promises and things like that and it's really really grounds me for the day and it's something that I absolutely love to do I kind of was excited to make this because it really helped me prioritize the things that are important to me and to really work on the things that I want to make sure that I start my day with and one of them is gratitude for sure another aspect of positivity is just making sure that you surround yourself with positive people as well. And I know this can be hard, especially if you work somewhere that people aren't very positive or maybe you have family members in your life that aren't very positive and are bringing you down sometimes. But I really just want you to be aware and be mindful of the people that you're spending your time with and who you are surrounding yourself with. Because if you are always surrounding yourself with that people that are bringing you down and not making you feel good, you are going to start feeling like that as well. So you really have to be intentional about, okay, is this person bringing me up or is it bringing me down? And if someone is bringing you down, maybe you need to take a step away. Maybe you need to take a break from that person for a little bit. Even if it's a coworker or something, you can just walk into another room or go eat lunch somewhere else or do something different just to change it up because the people that we surround ourselves with can really affect our mood and how we feel. And another aspect of positivity is just in every aspect of your life, I want you to surround yourself with that positivity, like reading inspiring books, for example, listening to motivational podcasts, which I absolutely love to do, or follow people online that uplift me and motivate me. I don't want to follow people that are going to be bringing me down and making me worry and making me feel less than maybe you need to do a social media audit. Or maybe you need to find things that inspire you. I love inspirational quotes. I have them around my office for sure, at home. And it really just brings me me up and makes me feel good and just surrounding yourself in every aspect of your life your friendships how you start your day the things that you read the things that you listen to all have an effect on your mood and your positivity and that can help motivate you as well so if you're surrounding yourself with positivity you're going to feel better inside and you're going to feel more motivated listening to uplifting music I'm telling you that there's research that says that music can change your mood for sure and I really, really love music. My daughter, she absolutely loves music and that is something that makes her happy and makes her feel good. And I know it motivates her because when she's exercising or doing something like that, she's always blasting the music and it really motivates her and helps her feel good. And lastly, like I end every podcast, it's just using positive affirmations in your life. And just like that example that we talked about, I get to, that is an affirmation as well. How could you possibly reach your goals or stay motivated if you're constantly telling yourself that you can't do something or that it's too hard or you're never going to make it or you can't? Remember, your mindset needs to be worked on just as much as your physical body. They go hand in hand. You have to work on both. So using positive affirmations, use positive words for yourself and just catching yourself when you're not using positive self-talk. Just catching it and saying, okay, reframe and put a positive thought out there. That's all you have to do. It's that easy. So just using those positive affirmations and positive self-talk is huge in helping you stay motivated. And the next thing I want to talk about is just remembering the promises you make to yourself. I just did an episode on promises and I hope that you liked that one because it was so personal, so much of what I am doing in my everyday life is really promising myself to Stay with my goals to do the things that I know that help me feel good because it can change your life. I don't really want to set goals for myself anymore. I just want to like try to keep the promises I make to myself. And I want to envision all those things that I want to be and who I want to become in the end. Just like John Acuff said, imagine the finish. I know who I want to be and how I want to feel. So if I keep my promises to myself, I'll feel more motivated. I will feel excited and more willing to do the things that I don't really necessarily want to do because I know I want to keep those promises to myself because I know who and how I want to feel. So if you remember that your promises to yourself are so important, you'll be more likely to stay motivated and do the things that you need to do to become the person that you want to be, to feel the way you want to feel. And it goes in every aspect of your life. Okay, so the last one that I want to talk about for helping you stay motivated in your life is to reward yourself for the little things wins along the way. Okay, so say you want to start getting up a little bit earlier. Say you have to go to work. You're sick of rushing to work. You just want to have a little bit more time and you're not a morning person and getting up is so hard. I totally get it. Then I want you to set a goal to get up 20 minutes earlier than you normally do so you aren't rushing so much. So I want you to tell yourself that you're going to make a great breakfast smoothie in the morning. That's your little reward for getting up earlier, not rushing and not starving because you didn't have time to eat before you were running out the door. It's those little things that make us feel good inside that just keep us going. What are those little rewards and little wins along the way that are going to keep you motivated? Think of the things that you could do to reward yourself for going to the gym, for getting that project done, for cleaning out that closet. What are those little things that you could do to reward yourself to give you those little wins along the way? And I really like to cross things off my to-do list. It just helps me feel good when I see a week's worth of crossing off it shows me that I accomplished something and that is a reward in itself for me I know that sounds crazy but those little things of crossing things off or check marking things that I have already done make me feel good so rewarding yourself for those little wins along the way is going to help you feel good so okay I did five days of workout this week I'm going to reward myself what are you going to do to reward yourself right you're going to maybe take a break on Saturday you're going to sleep in a little bit and reward yourself for all of that week's hard work so I hope this was very helpful for you in giving you some ideas to really motivate yourself because it can be so hard you know it's the middle of winter and some of you might be living in this cold weather and it's really hard to stay motivated so the one thing that always keeps me motivated though is just imagining the person that I want to be who do I want to be who do I want to become what kind of person do I want to be how do I want to feel. That really helps me to stay motivated. And when I'm keeping my promises to myself, it really helps. So just to recap a little bit, I don't want you to imagine the start. I want you to imagine the finish. That is going to help you get up and get something done. Also, another thing is you can combine something old with something new. Maybe making a new playlist for yourself to get something done, to get the house clean, to go get that workout in. Combining something old with something new. And the next thing is I want you to remember to surround yourself with positivity in every way, even if it's just writing down three things you're grateful for every single morning, it's going to set the tone for your day. Surrounding yourself with positive people and really making sure that you're talking positive to yourself because we can't possibly reach our goals or ever stay motivated if we're making ourselves feel bad all the time. And you're not always going to feel motivated and that's going to be okay. You don't have to be so hard on yourself all the time because we're not always going to feel like doing the things that we know that we should be doing. And lastly, it's remembering to reward yourself for the little wins along the way. So I hope this episode was helpful for you and it will help you stay motivated this year. And if this episode was helpful, I would be so grateful if you would share it with just one friend. You could text it to them. You could share it on your social media. I would be so grateful if you could share it. This is how we can spread the word for this podcast. If this was helpful and you loved it, I would also want to remind you to make sure that you go over and rate and review the podcast because that means everything to help a podcast grow. And I am so passionate and excited about this podcast. I hope that you are enjoying it. I'm really excited about some episodes that are coming up. I have an amazing guest coming up and you are just going to love her. I can't wait for you to meet her too. So like every episode, I want to end it with a affirmation that you can take with you for your day and I hope that it is helpful for you. And the affirmation that I've chosen for this episode is the one that I talked about in the episode because I am completely So I hope that you have a wonderful day. I will see you on next week's episode.