Today I thought we could explore motivators that work. How do we know they work? Because they have worked for us in the past. In my experience these fall into two categories.

• Things we didn’t want to do, but did anyway.
• Things we wanted to do, and stepped out of our comfort zone for.

So lets start with a list of things we didn’t want to do, but did anyway. And let’s not stop there. I think it would be really super helpful to find out why we did it anyway. What was it that gave us that added push?

For example:

• I didn’t want to go to work Wednesday morning, but I went anyway because my daughter was counting on me, she needed me, and she would have been really disappointed and upset with me if I had let her down.
• I wanted to go to a concert with my granddaughter, so I stepped out of my comfort zone … bought Lady Gaga tickets (scary – I’m not sure why), agreed to drive downtown (yikes!), and eat at an unknown restaurant (way out of my comfort zone) … Why? Because I didn’t want to disappoint her. And also because I found someone who was willing to help pick out the best tickets, do the driving, and find a good restaurant.

Interestingly, for me, both examples have to do with making someone else happy. What does this tell me? That if I can find a way to include someone else’s happiness or comfort, I can get myself do quite a few things that would otherwise be really difficult for me to make myself do.

A Few More Ideas:

Other things that might motivate me to do what I don’t want to do might include:

• Desperation
• Fear
• Anger

Other motivators that might push me out of my comfort zone into new experiences might include:

• Curiosity
• A Challenge (for example… if someone said “You can’t …”)
• Too much coffee…. LOL

So, guys… Let’s get started on our lists, and see what we can find out about what gets us up and out of bed in the morning, and keeps us keeping on even when we’d rather not.

Getting ourselves to do the things that we don’t want to do… that’s a tricky one. We all have activities, chores, jobs, stuff, that we “should” do, or are “supposed to do” and that we don’t do because… well, truth be told, we just don’t want to. Maybe it seems too hard, maybe it’s boring, maybe we resist for other reasons. Sometimes its something simple, like getting the laundry done or washing the dishes. Maybe you need to make a dental appointment, or return books to the library.

Today, I’m talking about the little things. Let’s leave the big things for later on. And by the big things I mean getting out of a bad relationship, breaking a bad habit. losing weight, and all those other big impossible scary things that seem fraught with danger and doomed to failure.

Let’s get the little things done before we go big and hit the hard stuff. What I’m hoping for, is that by getting the simple small things accomplished, we’ll build some momentum and all the other “but I don’t want to …” obstacles to health and happiness will simply fall away.

We’ll need a “to do” list that includes all the things that we need to do for one reason or another. Things that we don’t want to do, things that we have been putting off doing for days, weeks, months, maybe even years. Little things that weigh us down and nag at us in the background.

Make a nice long list:

• I should …
• I need to …
• I am supposed to …

Here are a few examples:

• I should … clean out the refrigerator.
• I need to … declutter my house.
• I am supposed to … do my taxes.

Now that your list is made:

Now that the list is made, it’s time to edit it a bit. You don’t want to do it… but you “should.” Is that really true? Or can you simply say, “Hey, I don’t want to, and I’m not going to… “ and poof… that’s over and done? You’re telling yourself you “need” to. Is that really true? Is this a necessary thing? Or can you just let it go?  Just because you are “supposed” to do something, is it really true that you have to do it? Or can you just say no?

Here’s an example from my own experience… I “need to” go through all my remaining boxes of junk sorting and tossing, and organizing what I plan to keep before I put them into storage. I “need to” do this because it’s smarter, and it saves space in my storage unit, and it declutters my life. But I don’t want to. And I’m not doing it. And my house is cluttered with boxes and bins full of God knows what. So… maybe I “need to” deal with it now, but hey, I don’t want to, so I’m not going to, and poof… it’s going to storage UNSORTED and that’s fine with me… it’s better than fine because hey… I need a decluttered house more than I need a neat and tidy storage unit.

I “should” clean out the refrigerator. Is that really true? Yes. I have scary stuff in there taking up space, the last time I didn’t clean it out, I ate some bad tomato sauce by accident and puked my guts up all night long.

Next up:

Now that we’ve eliminated the unnecessary  items, our lists are shorter, and it’s possible we might even do a few things on our lists… or maybe not. Maybe we still don’t want to. If that’s the case, don’t worry, I think a good definitive list is plenty for today. Tomorrow we’re going to work on ways to motivate ourselves to get this stuff out of our hair and off our plates.