1. I can’t do it. It seems too hard, so we think we can’t stick to the change. We don’t believe in ourselves. This can be countered from the fact that many other people no more capable than us have done it. For example, Oprah ran a marathon a little before I started training for my first marathon, and so I told myself, “If Oprah can do it, so can I!” I was right.
2. He/she can do it, but that doesn’t apply to me. Just because someone else can do it, doesn’t mean we can, right? We look for reasons they can do it but we can’t — maybe he can be a minimalist because he has no kids, or is a freelancer rather than someone with a real job. Maybe she’s way, way fitter than I am, so she can run a marathon. Maybe she doesn’t have all the obligations I have, or has a supportive spouse, or doesn’t have a crippling health condition. OK, fine, it’s easy to find excuses: but look at all the other people who have worse obstacles than you who’ve done it. I have 6 kids and still managed to change a lot of things in my life. Stories abound of people with disabilities or illnesses who overcame their obstacles to achieve amazing things. Your obstacles can be overcome.
3. I need my ___. Fill in the blank: I need my coffee, my cheese, my soda, my TV shows, my car, my shoe collection … these are things we convince ourselves we can’t live without, so we can’t make a change like becoming vegan or eating healthier or unschooling our kids or simplifying our lives or going car-free. And I’ve made these excuses myself, but they all turned out to be lies. I didn’t need any of that. The only things you really need are basic food, water, clothing, shelter, and other people for social needs. Everything else is not a real need.
4. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Sure, I agree with this statement (as many of us would) but the problem is this is used to justify all kinds of crappy behavior. Might as well scarf down those Doritos and Twinkies, because hey, life is meant to be enjoyed, right? No. You can do without junk food and still enjoy life. You can exercise and enjoy it. You can give up pretty much anything and still enjoy life, if you learn to see almost any activity as enjoyable.
5. I need comfort. This might also be true, but we can push ourselves into more discomfort than we let ourselves believe. We can be a bit cold, instead of needing to be at the perfect comfortable temperature. We can do hard exercise, instead of needing to lay around on the couch. We can write that thing we’ve been procrastinating on — it might be hard, but we can push through that. When our minds seek comfort, don’t let them run — push a little bit outside the comfort zone, and begin to be OK with a bit of discomfort.
6. I don’t know how. This is also true, but you can learn. Start with a little at a time, and learn how to deal with this new change. Do some research online. Watch some videos. Ask people online how they dealt with it. This is easily overcome with a little effort and practice. In fact, if you do it now, and learn a little at a time, then you’ll be able to do away with this pesky excuse.
7. I can do it later. Sure, you can always do it later … but your later self will also feel the same way. Why should the later self be more disciplined than your current self? In fact, because you’re allowing yourself to slide now, you’re building a habit of procrastination and actually making is less likely that your future self will be more disciplined. Instead, do it now, unless there’s something more important that you need to do … don’t let yourself slide just because you don’t feel like it.
8. One time won’t hurt. This is so tempting, because it’s kind of true — one time won’t hurt. Assuming, that is, that it’s only one time. One bite of chocolate cake, one missed workout, one time procrastinating instead of writing. Unfortunately, it’s never actually just one time. One time means your brain now knows it can get away with this excuse, and the next “one time” leads to another, until you’re not actually sticking to something. Make a rule: never ever believe the “one time” excuse. I did this with smoking (“Not One Puff Ever”) and it worked. If you’re going to allow yourself a bite or two of chocolate cake, decide beforehand and build it into your plan (“I will allow myself a fist-sized serving of sweets once every weekend”) and stick to that plan, rather than deciding on the fly, when your resistance is weak.
9. I don’t feel like it. Well, true. You don’t feel like working hard. Who does? Letting the rule of “I’ll do it when feel like it” dictate your life means you’ll never write that book, never build that business, never create anything great, never have healthy habits. Create a plan that’s doable, and execute it. When the rationalizations like this come up, don’t believe them. Everyone is capable of doing a hard workout even when they’re not in the mood. Everyone can overcome their internal resistance.
10. I’m tired. Yep, me too. I still did my heavy squat workout today. There is truth to needing rest, and resting when you need it (listen to your body) but this is usually the mind trying to weasel out of something uncomfortable. There’s a difference between being exhausted and needing some rest, and being the little tired we all feel every afternoon. Push through the latter.
11. I deserve a reward/break. We all deserve that tasty treat, or a day off. I’m not saying you shouldn’t give yourself a reward or break. But if you make this rationalization your rule, you’ll always be on a break. You’ll always be giving yourself rewards, and never sticking to the original plan. Here’s what I do instead: I see sticking to my plan as the reward itself. Going on a run isn’t the thing I have to get through to get a reward — the run is the reward.
12. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop? This again is our mind wanting to run from discomfort, and of course it’s true — it would be nice to stop if you’re pushing into a discomfort zone for too long. The thing is, the implication is that it would be better to stop, because it would be nice … but that’s a lie. It would be easier to stop, but often it’s better to continue pushing. This excuse almost beat me when I tried to run my 50-mile ultramarathon last December, because honestly it would have been much nicer to stop and not finish the race, especially in the last 10 miles or so. I pushed through, and found out I was tougher than I thought.
13. The result you’re going for isn’t important. If you’re trying to run a marathon, this is phrased like, “It’s not that important that I finish this”. I’ve used this excuse for learning languages (it doesn’t matter if I learn this) or programming or any number of things I wanted to learn. I’ve used it for writing and exercise and eating healthy food. And while the result might not be that important, the truth is that the process is very important. If you stick with a process that will be better for you in the long run, then you will be better off. But if you let yourself go just because you are uncomfortable and at this moment care more for your comfort than the goal you set out for, you’ll have lots of problems. The goal isn’t important, but learning to stick to things when you’re uncomfortable is extremely important.
14. I’m afraid. Now, this is the most honest excuse there is — most of us don’t want to admit we’re afraid to pursue something difficult. But it’s also a weaselly way out of discomfort — just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean you can’t do something. You can. I’ve done tons of things I’m afraid of — mostly creating things that I was worried I’d fail at. And while the fear sometimes came true — I didn’t do too well sometimes — the act of pushing through the fear was incredibly important and I learned a lot each time.

1. Notice the excuse. It has way more power if it works on you in the background.
2. Try to have an answer for the excuse beforehand — anticipate it.
3. If you give in, that’s OK, but recognize that you’re giving in to a lame excuse. Be aware of what you’re doing.
4. After giving in, see what the results are. Are you happier? Is your life better? Was it worth it giving in to discomfort?
5. Learn from those results. If you pushed through and are happy about it, remember that. If you gave in to excuses, and didn’t like the result, remember that.

Make Monday Meetings Later

Email Mindfully

Remember That It’s Just The Beginning

Reload Through Unloading

1. Ignore The Unimportant

2. Understand What Makes You Bored

3. Laugh More Often

4. Keep A Log Of Your Breakthroughs

5. Exercise

6. Create A Custom Environment

7. Read Success Stories

8. Switch Tasks

9. Assess Your Progress

10. Talk About Your Projects

11. Avoid Energy Vampires

12. Write Clear Goals

13. Exercise Satisfaction

14. Accept Failure

15. Use Affirmations

16. Play Games

17. Say “No”

18. Look For Positive People

19. Difficulty Is Part Of The Game

20. Create Personal Challenges

21. Choose Positive Motivation

22. Release Your Guardians

23. Enforce Your Personal Mission

24. Spend Time Outside

25. Keep A Clean Inbox

26. Don’t Aim For Perfection

27. Do One Thing At A Time

28. Keep A Source Of Inspiring Readings

29. Put On Some Good Music

30. Don’t Fall Into The Productivity Trap

31. Keep Your Life Lenses Clean

32. Clean Up Your House

33. Stop Reading This And Get To Work

One of my coaching clients asked me this the other day:

Steer Clear of Speculation and Focus on Facts

28 Ways to Motivate Yourself Now

By Remez Sasson
 
Motivation and enthusiasm manifest as desire and interest, and as a driving force that pushes you to take action and pursue goals.
However, it often happens that you have the desire and interest, but you lack the motivation. This is a frustrating situation, since you want to do a certain thing, but cannot get enough inner strength and motivation to act.
There are many reasons for the lack of motivation. It could be due to a weak desire, laziness or shyness, and it could be due lack of self esteem and self confidence. In some cases, the reason is a physical or mental problem, which requires professional help.

Lack of motivation and lack of enthusiasm are two of the main reasons for failure and of living a mediocre life.

You cannot blame other people if you lack the enthusiasm to act follow goals. You need to find a way to motivate yourself.
Lack of motivation and enthusiasm can show up everywhere, at home, at work, in relationships, in pursuing goals and in everything else. This often, creates indifference, unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
Reasons for Lack of Motivation and Enthusiasm:

• Lack of faith in one's abilities.
• Fear of failure, due to failure in the past.
• Fear of what others might say.
• The habit of procrastination.
• Laziness.
• The feeling or belief that there are other more important things to do.
• Being too stressed or nervous.
• Absence of enough stimuli or incentives.

The above mentioned reasons stifle motivation and enthusiasm, and are only excuses for not acting. However, you learn to overcome and disregard them, by becoming aware of them, acknowledging them, and understanding that you can change the programming of your mind.
Sometimes, there are short bursts of motivation or enthusiasm. You start acting enthusiastically, but lose interest and motivation after a while, because you find it hard to sustain motivation or enthusiasm.
If you wish to improve your life, you need to awaken motivation and enthusiasm. Tell yourself, over and again, how much you lose by their absence, and how much you gain by having them.
You need incentive and drive for following your big dreams, and also for the performance of minor daily tasks and chores. Otherwise, laziness, absence of energy and procrastination will set in.
Instead of suffering, feeling uncomfortable and passive, it would be much better to produce enough motivation to take action and do things. This will make you feel much better, happy and satisfied.
Procrastination, laziness, indifference and passivity cause unhappiness, weakness and lack of satisfaction, but being enthusiastic, motivated and active bring a sense of joy, strength and power. By getting motivated, you act, do things, take your mind off problems and difficulties and focus on finding solutions and achieving success.

Find out where you really need motivation.

This means finding out what really matters to you and what actions would bring benefits and improvement into your life and into the life of the people around you.
Think deeply, and discover what are your real goals in life, but don't forget also to focus your attention on the little things of life, where a little motivation will help too.

Start to overcome lack of motivation in the little, everyday affairs of life

Doing small, or not so important things, which you usually avoid doing, can help you increase your inner strength. When your inner strength grows, you will be able to push yourself to do greater things, even if you are not motivated enough.
When this happens, you will possess the ability to focus on what you want to do and awaken the energy you need.

1. Wash the dishes, now, instead of later.
2. Throw the garbage, now, instead of later.
3. Turn off the TV and taking a short walk.
4. Clean and arrange the contents of one of your drawers.
5. Decide on a book to read and start reading, even if you want to do other things.

One more, useful exercise is to devote a few minutes a day, to visualizing yourself doing something you want to do, but lacks the enthusiasm and energy to do. In your imagination, see yourself acting enthusiastically and energetically. Rehearse with this mental scenario day after day.

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