The keys to unlocking your motivation

MOTIVATION

As a professional athlete for over 15 years, training and competing in an individual sport at an elite International level, motivation was an essential attribute to my daily routine and career. I have always had an intrinsic motivation, an inner drive, that as a professional athlete enabled me to train daily, sometimes 3 times a day for Ironman, to bounce back after races that didn’t go so well, managing and returning from injury or illnesses and to always reach the finish line, no matter what. Motivation towards my goals helped me see obstacles as opportunities and to never give up on my goals. Knowing and focusing on what I wanted, believing I would achieve it and making choices that prioritised my goals enabled me the success and propelled my motivation to keep achieving.

In my work as a Life Coach, I find lack of motivation is something that holds people back from moving forward in life and achieving their goals. I help guide and support them to become aware of their intrinsic motivation, how to access it and how to maintain it to reach their goals.

How to discover what motivates you?

The journey begins with self-discovery. Without knowing yourself, it simply becomes too easy to follow the crowd, working towards the status quo diminishes motivation, working towards what is important to you will always be more meaningful which will drive you further towards what you want.

There are key areas to discovering who you are and what drives you.

1. Being aware of your needs: 

Behind every behaviour there is a feeling, all feelings are energy. And underlying that feeling is a need. There are Universal needs that are crucial elements to living a fulfilled and happy life, to be seen, to be valued, to feel like you matter and belong, to feel safe, to be heard, to be understood, to be loved. Being aware of your needs, and channelling that into resourceful behaviours which will direct you towards living the life you desire can help you discover what motivates you. You may need a life coach to help you find what your needs are for increased motivation.

2. Know your strengths, what you love and enjoy doing 

For example, I enjoyed riding my bike, I loved competing, being outside in nature, being active, feeling good and freedom to do what I wanted. Sports, in particular fulfilled all of this. I see now a lot of my clients take on the role as a people pleaser and live their lives to make sure everyone else is happy and everyone else has their needs met, they find it hard to motivate themselves to do things to meet their own needs and create their own happiness because they often don’t know what their needs are or how to put their own needs first. Reflect with these questions: what are my strengths? When have I felt most fulfilled? What was I doing? What makes me feel alive?

3. Living into your values

Get to know your values and live by them! Values are ideals that are important to us and how we want to feel on a day-to-day basis, which ultimately guide our decision-making process. Living in alignment with your values sparks your innate motivation. Some examples of values include; happiness, health, family, honesty, integrity, adventure, commitment, love, trust, truth and success.

How to increase your level of motivation.

Set goals – use the SMART goal setting model (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely). In addition, visualise having achieved that goal before it has happened, and feel the emotion in your body. Emotions are energy and all have their own vibrational frequency. They can bring us in motion or keep us stuck.

Work on your belief system to see if it is propelling you forward or keeping you stuck.
The majority of my clients come to me feeling stuck and not able to move forward. It is very common that we live from our past conditioning, that is our thought patterns or belief systems, emotions and behaviours. When you can explore the root cause behind feeling stuck it helps accept and release the past, freeing up energy to use as motivation to take action towards the desired future.

A big part of increasing motivation is the feeling of pride. As a coach I make sure my clients get good at taking time to reflect and acknowledge their growth, achievements and results to create the feeling of pride in their body which increases motivation them to keep going and do more of that particular behaviour.

Develop a healthy morning routine to set your day up. Whether it is meditation, exercise, journaling, reading, stretching or getting outside for a walk. How you start the day can make all the difference to bring momentum into your day, how you feel and how productive you are.

Where do you need to focus on to bring more motivation into your life?

As a life coach my M.O.V.E program helps you uncover your values and belief systems as well as to set goals giving you the motivation you need to make the changes.