Unleash Your Motivation: Grrrrr!

Time to Live Your Best Life!

If you’ve ever wished you were more motivated to experience life at your full potential, this is for you. Stop living with the brakes on; time is ticking, and your life is passing you by.

Most of us set goals and work hard, only to find our motivation fizzling out after a couple of weeks. Difficulties and struggles set in, and we give up. But there are little tricks that will help you harness the power of your mind and propel you toward achieving your goal.

The Two Motivators

When you boil it down, you’re motivated by two simple things:

1. To avoid pain (fear of failure)
2. To gain pleasure (promise of reward)
3.  & 4   Ok, maybe 4 things. Add in, Survival and Replication – which are highly dependent upon numbers 1 & 2.

Herein lies human motivation, which, when matched up to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, may explain all human behavior from survival to self-actualization.

An Updated Version of Maslow’s Model

PEOPLE! It is 2024! We should ALL be working towards self-actualization. We are in America, and if you are reading this, you too should be heading towards the top of YOUR pyramid. It’s time to dream up your goals and start living them!

So many of us are motivated more strongly for different reasons. But, you are naturally geared toward one of these motivators. To figure out which, think of the last time you accomplished a task and then ask yourself the following: While doing the task, were you thinking about what would happen if you failed to finish, or were you thinking about what you would gain when you finished?

Take note of which motivator works for you – fear of failure or promise of reward.

Set Your Goal

The first step towards unstoppable motivation is to determine your goal. You know you’re unhappy with your current state, but what exactly do you want to change? Why is it important to you?

Perhaps you can relate to one of the following goals:

• Health: You need to lose weight for your health. Your doctor scared you into action, or maybe you’ve had a recent health problem that landed you in the hospital. Your goal is to move away from the pain of sickness.
• Appearance and Energy: You want to look and feel incredible. You’ve always wanted to feel vibrant and attractive. The idea of having more energy really excites you. Your goal is to move toward the pleasure and reward of a fit body.
• Family: You’re worried about your kids. They don’t eat enough vegetables, drink more soda pop than water, and play video games constantly. You have decided to model a healthier lifestyle and encourage your kids to participate. Your goal is to move away from the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and to propel your kids toward a healthy future.

Train Your Mind for Weight Loss and Performance Goals

With your clear and important goal in mind, let’s take a few minutes to train your mind to achieve it. You know that weight loss comes as a result of eating right and regularly challenging exercise, so let’s use your mind to conquer both.

Note: Your subconscious cannot distinguish between imagining a snake or actually seeing a snake in front of you. Similar physiological changes occur when this image enters the subconscious mind. Likewise, we will use this process to master our actions with diet and exercise!

Eating Right

Use this exercise to distance yourself from the self-sabotaging foods you really wish you didn’t eat and to naturally begin selecting healthy foods.

1. Identify Unhealthy Foods: Take a moment to review your current eating habits. Identify the foods that you should stop eating (sweets, anything fried, refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks). Identify the worst food that you eat regularly but know you shouldn’t.
2. Visualize Healthy Choices: Now imagine the healthy foods that you should eat (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein). Identify the healthiest food that you know you should eat regularly.

Mental Exercise:

Close your eyes (except for when you need to read here…slightly keep one eye open for reading purposes) I am going to count to 10 and you are slowly going to go into a deep sleep.  “1, 2, 3, you are getting sleepy, 4,5,6, I hope you’re not driving, 7,8,9, goodnight, 10….you are sleeping….now read.” ????

• Unhealthy Food Image: Draw up the image of your unhealthy food item. This image will likely be quite vivid, with smell, taste, and bright color. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy, and remote.
• Healthy Food Image: Draw up the image of your healthy food item. This image will likely be fuzzy and faded. In your mind, bring this picture to life with smell, taste, sound, and bright color.

NOW, that I have you hypnotized I want you to focus on the intended behavior.  That is choosing these foods to eat.  Focus on THEM.

Regular Exercise

This technique can be applied in a way that encourages you to crave exercise rather than avoid it. If you do not learn to enjoy this process, it is okay. For the first 90 days, you need to keep at it. Once you experience some of the benefits, you will then find a way to like it. Remember your first beer? Disgusting right?  Until you got that buzz….hooked.  Once you achieved your internal motivator the connection was made…and “voila!”, habit formed.

Onward…

1. Post-Workout Satisfaction: Take a moment to imagine how you feel after a great workout (notice the emphasis on the word after). Remember the physical satisfaction as well as the sweet feeling of accomplishment. This is the chemical reaction we are after.
2. Identify Barriers: Now bring to your mind the aspects of exercise that you dislike. What is your biggest reason for avoiding exercise? Are you too tired? Do you not have enough time? Is physical exertion too much of a hassle? Pinpoint your greatest complaint about exercise.

Mental Exercise:

Now with the image of these two aspects of exercise in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise:

• Exercise Complaint Image: Draw up the image of your exercise complaint. The image is likely to be clear and accompanied by the sounds, smells, and sensations. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy, and remote.
• Post-Workout Satisfaction Image: Draw up the image of the wonderful feeling you have after accomplishing a great workout. Magnify this image in your mind. Fixate on how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally. View the experience in bright colors and add a soundtrack of inspirational music (yes, Eye of the Tiger, grrrrrrr!).

Snap! Wake Up!

You should have seen yourself.  You were dancing around like a crazy chicken!  Thanks for the laugh! ????????

Now, lets see what happens… Every time you hear the sound, “Grrrrrrrrr!”, this will be a cue to get you to take massive action on your goals. You can even do it yourself to stimulate this state within yourself (if you are more of the pirate type, “Arrrrrrrr!” works nicely too).

Why It Works

If this was your first experience with training your mind (also called Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP), it may have felt a little odd. Many of the world’s top achievers regularly use techniques like these to accomplish astounding goals. You know, ‘fake it till you make it,’ or ‘thoughts are things,’ or good old Doctor Phil’s, ‘mental tapes’. Whatever is playing in your head, make sure the soundtrack is conducive to your goals and desired outcomes.

These techniques work because they train your mind to bring your behavior in line with your values. Think about it: you value health, you desire to be fit and attractive, and you want to instill healthy habits in your kids. These techniques encourage you to avoid self-sabotage and make choices that line up with what you truly value.

Now that you are ready to accomplish your goals, go get them! Dream a big dream and start setting up your life to live there!

Eye of the tiger—Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!