Following on from the linked in live Simon Ward and myself did this week (recording available), I thought it the right time to talk about how motivation is linked to resilience and wellbeing.
Motivation and resilience are obviously two different things. Resilience being the ability to ‘spring’ back after adversity, whilst motivation being the ‘drive’ that moves us to do something. There is of course some overlap. Studies suggest that being resilient requires motivation and being motivated requires some resilience.
Any challenge we face requires us to dig a little deeper and keeping ourselves well requires motivation. So, what do we need to do to improve both and be the best versions of ourselves.
Gain some insight
It’s so important to check in on ourselves on a regular basis, consider whether what we’re doing is going well, ask ‘what is going right’, ‘what could we do better’. In terms of our well-being, how tired are we? Can we sleep easily? When was the last time we went outside?
Insight and awareness are the first steps to moving forward with any improvements we want to make. Once we’ve identified some of things we might be struggling with, we can consider the why behind the struggle. So, if it’s sleep, then maybe our routine at bedtime needs to change, or maybe we’re not getting enough fresh air and exercise during the day. Sometimes it really is that simple.
Habits
Habits can be great and not so great. It is quite easy to form a new habit, it really only takes between 30 and 60 days and the habit doesn’t need to be a big change. For example, deciding to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning will rehydrate you after a long period of nothing and get our minds and bodies working faster. #Goodhabit Do this every day for 30 days and you’ll likely keep doing it forever!
Bad habits are harder to break but not impossible and replacing the habit with something more positive is going to help. Distraction can work wonders.
Use whatever technology or methods work for you to remind yourself to do that new thing. A daily reminder in your phone at wake-up time will help. Taking a glass of water to bed at night means its ready for you when you wake up.
Motivation
Motivation comes from doing. What do I mean? Well, we get more motivation by doing something. If we start small with anything, our motivation grows.
Motivation is both found from within (intrinsic) and from outside (extrinsic). So, if we can figure out what motivates us to get up and get things done, we can do more of those things.
Sometimes motivation can be gained by changing the way we view things. Instead of ‘I have to go food shopping, how about ’ ‘I get to go and buy food for my family this week.’
Self-Compassion
If we feel confident then we’re more likely to be kind to ourselves and do the things that improve our wellbeing and motivation. This can be a chicken and egg situation! If we talk to negatively to ourselves, our confidence will decrease. If we can say nice things to ourselves and congratulate small successes then our confidence increases.
And finally: what others have. The art of comparing ourselves
It’s easily done and so natural, but it is completely useless to us. We all compare ourselves to what our neighbours have, or what role our peers are doing, or what other mums are doing and so on and so on. I do it all the time. However, I always stop myself and challenge my thoughts. We are all on a different journey, we have not had the same experiences and challenges. Therefore, how is it even possible to compare ourselves?
Try going back and looking at your journey. Everyone has had their own success in their own way. We are all different and we can celebrate that. Not forgetting that we all value different things as success.
So tonight, I challenge you to celebrate something you have done this week. Life is going faster; everything is changing around us, and we spend so little time appreciating what we have done well. So, open the champers, eat the cake, use the special occasion plates. Let’s build our confidence, find more motivation, and look after our wellbeing. One small step at a time.
