How do I stay motivated?

by Mariana Bozesan

Motivation is the single most important factor in your ability to follow through with anything in life, let alone weight loss. You must decide, without any backdoors, that losing weight is what you really want to do. To achieve your ideal weight, you must get very clear about your outcome:

1. WHAT: Start with writing down exactly WHAT it is you want to achieve. What is your vision of your ideal body? Describe in detail the amount of weight you want to lose and by when – week by week. Get a clear picture of what you are going to wear, how proud you are going to feel, what action you are going to take today to get there, what your ideal energy level is going to be and what is the lifestyle that you will have once you achieve your ideal weight?



2. WHY: Ask yourself WHY it is important for you to achieve your weight goals. The secret lies in the WHY. How will your life change once you have achieved your ideal weight? How will that make you feel? How will losing weight impact your relationships, your self-esteem, your job, your family and friends? Look at all the factors in your life that will be impacted by your weight loss and this will give you your "Why", which is the juice of life.



3. DIFFERENCES: Then ask yourself: "What is different this time?"; "What am I willing to do that I wasn't willing to do before?"; "Why did I fail in the past?". While you are asking yourself these questions be aware of any contradictions that may arise. It is important to identify goals that are in disagreement with one another so you can break out of the vicious circle that these set up.



4. MODELLING: Another way to assist with your motivation is to model your successful past by remembering a time when you achieved any goal in the past. Think of an accomplishment which seemed like a dream in the beginning but which became a reality because you made it happen. What did you do back then? What actions did you take? What helped you then? Find way to model your weight loss process on the psychological process of this past success. Think of how you felt about it, what you did to stay on course, which people you asked for support, what books you read, which seminars you went to, who was your supporting buddy or team, etc. Get any and every resource you could think of to help you this time around too.



5. SUPPORT: Get a buddy and/or a coach to help you. Never underestimate the power of a support system. Most people would do much more for others than they would do for themselves. Enlist the support you need from other people. They can help you stay motivated. Offer your own services in exchange for theirs to save money. Not only can you ask people you know who have already lost weight what they did, but you can get someone to be your buddy in this process and you can help each other stay motivated. You may have someone in your life that will be a committed buddy. Take advantage of the added benefit of professional coaches to help you stay on the path to achieving your weight loss goal.



6. LEVERAGE: If you are having trouble staying motivated you might use what we call leverage. Leverage is when you identify someone else in your life that will benefit from your weight loss. If you can't do this for yourself, maybe your weight loss will have a huge impact on someone else's life. Maybe your child is afraid you won't live long enough to attend their wedding, maybe you can motivate yourself with the thought of holding their children in your arms or maybe your weight loss will assist someone else's weight loss whose life is in danger.



7. HAVE FUN: Last but not least find fun ways to celebrate every single success along the way. That will support you to create replacement habits for the old destructive ones. Through fun your brain will want to guide you to your newly acquired habits so you can experience more pleasure. This is human nature. Set small goals and celebrate those achievements. Go and get a new outfit after you managed to work out and eat healthily for one day or one week. Ask a friend to encourage you every time you managed to push your plate away during dinner. Celebrate when you notice that you did something in a new, healthy way. Not only will celebrating help you stay motivated, it is crucial to establishing new, more empowering habits that will lead you to your final success.