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Do you often find yourself where your motivation went?  Do you suddenly revert back to your "old ways" without really understanding why?  If so, you may have a misconception about motivation.

Many people think motivation means not having to struggle with opposing desires.  Not so!  It is in our nature to pursue both the gratification of our senses (eating what we enjoy) and psychological gratification of meaningful but abstract goals (health, fitness).  Both pursuits are necessary.

Your motivation will be as strong as the amount of effort you put into making your own decisions with conscious awareness.  No one controls you, but you.  No one can make you eat.  No one can make you choose unhealthy foods.  No one can make you go off your plan.  Only you have the power to choose to do so or not.

Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself.  You are likely to be intrinsically motivated if you:

• attribute results to internal factors that you can control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),
• believe you can be effective in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck or actions of others),
• are interested in mastering the new life skill (being healthy) 

 

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside. Acknowledgement or approval from others is the most obvious example, but coercion and threats are also common extrinsic motivations.  While they may be effective in the short term, they will not be effective motivators in the long term.  To be successful, motivation must come from within yourself.  However, others may inspire you or expect more of you which provides confidence and self esteem, but this cannot be your only motivation because support of others can fluctuate.  You must look within you.  Practice positive self talk.  Do not be self-limiting!Rather than focusing on what is wrong, focus on what is right and what success you've experienced to date.  When you hear yourself say something negative to yourself, stop!  Replace the thought with something more positive or neutral.  By stopping negative self talk and creating habitually positive internal dialogue you can reduce stress and empower yourself. 

Your motivation wilol be weak when you consider yourself to be helpless.  There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.  They are 1) a lack of confidence, 2) a lack of focus and 3) a lack of direction.

Reasons We Lose Motivation

There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.

1.     Lack of confidence – If you don’t believe you can succeed, what’s the point in trying?

2.     Lack of focus – If you don’t know what you want, do you really want anything?

3.     Lack of direction – If you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do it?

Gain Confidence - The way to get out of this thought pattern is to focus on gratitude. Set aside time to focus on everything positive in your life. Make a mental list of your strengths, past successes, and current advantages. We tend to take our strengths for granted and dwell on our failures. By making an effort to feel grateful, you’ll realize how competent and successful you already are. This will rejuvenate your confidence and get you motivated to build on your current success.

Tangible focus – concrete goal, define actions, measure.  When know what you want, you become motivated to take action.

Direction - an ultimate goal, direction is having a day-to-day strategy to achieve it. A lack of direction kills motivation because without an obvious next action we succumb to procrastination.  Keeping track of your most important tasks will direct your energy towards success. Without a constant reminder, it’s easy to waste entire days.  

Hi!  I got lots of feedback and some wonderful ideas and suggestions.  I'll announce soon but looks like July will be self motivation and personal accountability.  I'm going to ask everyone to bring their before picture.  Hope to see ya soon!

I’m sorry to tell you that I just received the following cancellation message (see pink below) from Dr. Counts.  Normally I’d just roll with the punches and come up with an alternative, but I honestly just don’t have time to put anything together and I have absolutely nothing in the works.  I’m working two jobs right now and we leave on vacation this Friday after work.  I’d put all my eggs in the one basket and was counting on having a speaker…lesson learned.  I’ll always have back up plan from now on.  So, that being said let’s reschedule our meeting.

 

July!  Plan on Wednesday July 29 at 630pm at my home.

 

What topic would you like?  Relationships?  Staying on Plan while traveling?  Recipe exchange and taste test?  Vitamins?  Breaking a Plateau?  I’m open to just about any suggestion. 

 

Thanks for your understanding!

 

Tawnya,  I am so sorry to cancel at this late date.  A dear friend’s mother passed away Sunday, June 14, and I have just learned that her funeral will be held on Wednesday, June 17, late in the afternoon.  I won’t be able to make it to your group that evening.

 

I don’t have other openings in my schedule right now.  Let me talk with you again in a few weeks and see what we can work out.  Please let everyone know how disappointed I am.  I must attend this funeral and support my friend at this sad time.  Please forgive the late cancellation. 

 

Warm regards,     Jane   

I got my ticket - I think it is going to be lots of fun, hopefully by then I will be  2mth post-op!!
If not I will still be there, grasping any and all info and meeting some really nice people.

Hi all!

 

I’m excited that OH has decided to host an event in Dallas this September!  This is a great place to gain a wealth of knowledge, meet some new folks and even spend some quality time with those you already know.  Details are posted on OH, but here are a few details.

 

When:

September 25, 02:00 pm - September 26, Midnight 2009

 

Where:

The Westin Galleria Dallas
13340 Dallas Parkway
Dallas, TX
Website
1-972-934-9494

 

Lodging:

The Westin Galleria Dallas
13340 Dallas Parkway
Dallas, TX
Website
1-972-934-9494

 

Event registration is usually $50, but use my promotion code for a discount and pay only $20!!!!  Register online at OH and enter the code Williams09.  Due to the deep discount, the promotion is only available to the first 25 participants, so register as soon as possible to save some moola.

 

On another note, as time draws near lets consider making matching name badges that include before/after pictures, avatar pictures or whatever info you’d like.  I’m just throwing ideas out there.  It’s up to you all.  I’d just like to see us attend as a group to support each other, easily identify each other and make everyone feel welcomed and supported. 

 

Tawnya Hendricks

1texasmom