The Spring Slide
Let’s talk about follow-through. It’s April, and that means that the newness of the New Year has worn off. There’s no more fun dreaming and planning our resolutions and things we’re going to achieve this year. The January crowds at the gym are dying down. How are you doing with your goals?
That’s what we’re going to discuss here. The slide that happens every spring as motivation wears off.
Key Notes:
Follow your plan
Motivation is fleeting, manifest your own
You can do hard things
The Plan
I harp on my clients a lot about planning and prep and getting habits set up and so on. (More of that in another post.) Most of that is front end thinking, and it’s true that the set-up is probably the most important part. However, if you plan to push a rock up a hill, start pushing, and then get sidetracked and stop pushing, what happens? That rock is gonna roll back down right on top of you. You gotta keep pushing.
If you look at a calendar year and the way most people plan yearly goals, January is thinking and writing month. February is getting the beginning habits set, and March is usually the first month of actual hard work. The newness has worn off, and about this time of year is when people start to lose motivation. You’ll probably notice the gym being a little less busy as people move outside and/or lose their traction for the year.
I don’t want my clients falling into that slide. The trick to motivation is not to rely on it, but to manifest it. No one wakes up every morning excited to go to work (not even me!). Inevitably, there will be days where you struggle to follow the plan you set in place. Maybe you’re tired, maybe you had to work longer than you expected. It’s these times where you need a constant reminder of why you decided to change your life for the better.
Manifesting Your Motivation
Maybe it’s a sticky note on your bathroom mirror with a reminder that you can do hard things.
Maybe it’s that new pair of shorts you want to fit in this summer and have some quads poking out—hanging visibly in the front of your closet.
Maybe it’s thinking about the hiking trip you have planned and dreaming of not being out of breath.
Whatever matters most to you, whatever it is that will remind you of why you started, find that. And USE it. Use that reminder to spark your motivation anew each day. Push yourself out of your comfort zone to try new things and continue to push yourself to follow your plan, even when things get hard. Do what you need to do to remind yourself why you wanted to change.
The pain of change is always greater than the pain of staying the same, but growth doesn’t happen inside your comfort zone.
Let me know how I can help you spark motivation—I’m here to help!
-Coach B
