What is motivation? Seriously, what is it?
Just recently I was asked where I see myself in a few years time. I said I love being in front of big crowds and the immediate response, was, "oh, like a motivational speaker".
In the past I might have said yeah, exactly but something clicked with me recently. Motivation really is nothing. It's great to have it but realistically it disappears really quickly. Motivation is one of those things that you'll have right after a conference or after an enlightening realisation with your pals.
Do you still have that same motivation one, two or three weeks later?
Of course not.
Here's a simple example; doesn't half the world set out to completely change their lives every New Year? We all say, we've got the motivation this time round. But in reality we end up staying the same or even getting worse in most cases.
Why?
Because you thought motivation was enough to keep you going.
You thought that motivation was the missing piece to the puzzle.
You thought that motivation would keep you going when things got tough.
It doesn't though. You already know that.
Motivation really is rubbish. It helps, but we need something bigger. We need a higher purpose. We need a why.
And that why, that higher purpose is what's going to drive our mindset and discipline to finally go after and get what we've wanted for so long.
For me, the past few months have delivered huge obstacle after huge obstacle. And every time, it really feels like those obstacles are getting bigger and bigger. It's consumed my life. Right now we're faced with a really difficult situation that really does feel like it's out of my hands now. I've got no control.
I've tried everything I can and now we're playing a waiting game. You know, sometimes people suck. (We'll tell you about that in a few weeks when it's all resolved :P)
Here's the point. I'm motivated to succeed in my business. I'm motivated to help others. I'm motivated to transform my own body by September 28th, photoshoot time :P
BUT, and this is the super important piece. With every obstacle that comes my way, I really can say goodbye to my motivation. It may as well have never existed. I come up with excuses not to workout, excuses not to eat right, excuses not to get out of bed, excuses to stay up late.
Guess what?
I didn't do any of those things. Why? Because discipline is the most important thing you could have in your life. Discipline is greater than motivation. Discipline is the missing piece to the puzzle. It's the number 1 thing that almost all of us fail to create in our lives and because of that we can't create the lives that we want.
There were so many times when I really didn't want to workout - I did two workouts those days to shut myself up. There were times when I didn't want to get out of bed. I started setting my alarm earlier and earlier, it's at 4.40am now. There were times when I wanted to eat junk- that's happened just ONCE in the past eight weeks, even when I was travelling.
What's the point of all this though Beatty? Well, it's simple really.
What are the things that you want for your life? From your relationships, your health, your wealth, your career. You need to identify those things first.
Once we have that done you need to dig deep and identify the why you want these things. It's not as simple as saying; hey i want more money because I could buy more nice things.
There has to be some sort of pain attached to NOT having what you're after. Why? Because we do things for one of two reason; either to avoid pain or to gain pleasure. Research shows that we'll do far more to avoid pain than we will to gain pleasure.
When you've found what it is you want I suggest asking yourself why several times.
Here's an example; I want to lose weight - why - because I want to look better - why - because I'll feel better in myself - why do you want that - because i'm not happy with how i look right now - why - because I have no energy and I can't wear the clothes that I want - why is that a problem - I feel self-conscious that others are judging me and I can't really do the things that I want with my life
BAM! You see how we turned losing weight into something MUCH more powerful?
Give this a go. I promise you it will help you to create more discipline in your life and best of all? It will help you to get what you want from your life.
Committed to You
Andrew Beatty.
Body Transformation Expert