Any time that you set out to make a change in your behavior you want it to be as easy as possible. The way to achieve this is to make sure that you’re truly motivated to make it happen from the beginning. Very often we get motivation and excitement confused. But when you understand the difference and focus on creating motivation you’ll find that change becomes much easier.
So what is true motivation? Here are three steps to help you experience it first hand:
1. Before you commit to any changes decide why you want them.
What are you going to get from these changes? How will it increase the quality of your life? After you answer these questions, redefine the change in terms of the benefits.
Ex: “I need to eat well” becomes “I want to eat in a way that will help me slim down and feel better about myself.” Rather than “I’m going to exercise” refer to it as “I’m going to energize myself” or “I’m going to increase my metabolism.”
2. When something goes wrong, think about how you’re going to fix it.
Doing something new means that you didn’t know how to do it, which means that you’re going to make mistakes. The questions is are those mistakes going to be signals letting you know that you’re a little off course and need to readjust, or are you going to use them as reasons why you can’t do it? The choice is yours, and your results will be different depending on which one you choose.
3. Don’t set time limits.
Tony Robbins used to ask the question: How long would you give your kid to walk? What’s your answer? Forever if that’s what they need, right? Your change can’t be a question of if, it needs to be a question of when. If you’re going to make a change in your life then you need to start with the decision that it is going to happen no matter how long it may take, because it is so important. This way you save valuable energy in pursuing and adjusting to reach your goal, rather than wondering if its possible or if you’re going to stick with it.