I often joke that I don’t really need a personal trainer, I just need someone to follow me around and slap the bad decisions out of my hand. I know what to do, I am a fitness trainer for crying out loud! I know the right choice in most situations, so why do I lack the motivation to make them sometimes?
We all want to believe that motivation comes from inside of us and that it is always accessible if we just have enough willpower and self discipline. Sometimes it even works that way. Maybe in a perfect world this would always be true.
We don’t live in a perfect world (you may have noticed with recent events). We do live in THIS world though and it’s our job to build a system to minimize our chances for failure.
So how do we jump start that motivation when it seems to be lacking? I have talked before about just getting started with a tiny step, and that works very well. Sometimes we need a bit more though. Sometimes we need Motivation’s best friend in the whole world: ACCOUNTABILITY.
Sometimes we can hold ourselves accountable internally, but many other times it helps to have something external. A gentle reminder to do what needs to be done because someone is going to check on you.
We recommend finding someone responsible enough to do this regularly (ideally on a consistent schedule) but not someone so close that it might cause issues with your relationship (like a significant other.) We tend not to always take kindly to those closest to us questioning our motivation or progress.
Find someone who cares enough about you to make sure you are doing what you need to but who isn’t so close that they get hurt or offended if you push back. After all, we can sometimes struggle with discomfort and change, and every once in a great while we might misdirect that discomfort onto someone who is just trying to help.
In a perfect world we would have limitless will power, energy, and motivation. We don’t live there though. We live here and we need to make sure we are setting ourselves up for success in as many ways as possible. Find an accountability partner (an accountabilibuddy?) and watch your motivation soar!