Find The Warrior Within: 4 Beautifully Simple Self-Motivating Mind Tricks | By Tom Schweickert

Are you struggling with self motivation? Having a hard time getting yourself to your regularly scheduled workouts? Finding more and more reasons to cheat on your healthy diet? Let's talk motivation.

First, a little background and a story!

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure I should point out that in my senior year in college (one of several senior years actually), I flunked a course in the psychology of motivation. Flunked it twice. And I also flunked a course in the psychology of learning at the same time. Impressive no?

However, to round out the story, I also happened to be teaching sky-diving at the local airport that term. Frankly, that beat sitting in a classroom hands down. And it still would, come to think about it. Because it's all a question of what motivates you.

This is me skydiving!

And my sky-diving students were highly motivated to learn the material—we're talking solo free-fall, not modern-day tandem jumping. Because when your life depends on something, you're motivated to study it...

But even though I have a degree in psychology (I finally passed the psychology of motivation third time!) I didn't become intimate friends with motivation until after college when I was self-employed. And motivation is everything when your income depends on it.

How to Become Self-Motivated

One of my great joys as a personal trainer and coach is watching clients become increasingly self-motivated. And there's a pattern I've observed in my successful clients: motivation grows as you begin to realize that you don't go from failure to failure, but from failure to success to failure to success. And if you keep at it—to a gradually increasing amount of success.

So as a warrior on life's journey, a battle you fight within—sometimes daily—is discouragement, one of the great enemies of motivation. Sometimes you just feel like giving up. Here's why:

"Dis-couragement" is being separated from courage. And it's what happens if you focus on your failures—because we tend to become what we focus on.

So why not focus on your successes, even the tiny ones? Rejoice in these tiny triumphs, let go of your failures and you will light up your day.

Now, there are only about 100 million ideas about motivation and goals and all things in between floating around out there. But today we're going to look at just 4 Self-Motivating Mind Tricks that you need to lock onto your goals.

How do you know if you're genuinely motivated?

• Motivation tells you to get out of bed for an early workout.
• Motivation helps you put down the doughnut.
• Motivation makes saying "no" to fries a reflex.
• Motivation makes a sweat drenched workout exciting.
• Motivation constantly reminds you WHY you do what you do.

Here are 4 Beautifully Simple Self-Motivating Mind Tricks

These work because they are so simple. They've worked for me, they work for my clients and they'll work for you—if you couple motivation with determination.

1) Give Your Warrior Within a Compass Heading!

That is, pinpoint your inner motivator. Motivation stems from having a goal. What is your goal? Why do you want to get into great shape?

Once you uncover your personal motivator you'll find that motivation flows quickly your way.

Take a minute to really uncover the reason you want to lose the weight, get fit, or replace a bad habit. Don't say something vague like you want to 'Be thinner' or 'Look more attractive'. Dig deeper - there is a very specific motivator in your life, you simply need to uncover it.

Here are some example "Why?" inner motivators:

• I want to have more energy to keep up with the kids.
• I want to improve my health through weight loss to extend and improve my life.
• I want to lose 15 pounds before my vacation.
• I want to restore my confidence to wear sleeveless shirts.
• I want to regain my figure to impress and attract my significant other.

Plus, Emma-Louise has two tools to help uncover the inner "why?" motivators:

1.  Understanding the Why of Your Goals (FREE)
2.  Goals Motivator - Find Your Hidden Treasure!

2) Write it Down and Make It Official!

When you write something down it suddenly feels official, doesn't it?

So write down your motivator for getting into great shape, and post it where you will see it often—next to your alarm clock, on the bathroom mirror, or in your car. Or all over the place for that matter.

Remember, though—a goal without a deadline is just a vision. Visions are great up front , but do be sure to put a completion date on the critter!

Each time you see your written motivator take a moment to visualize yourself taking action to accomplish your goal. Try to make the scene as clear in your mind as possible. This is a powerful tool for maintaining your focus and direction.

Visualize Success

Take the time to regularly visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. Spend 5 minutes with your eyes closed, envisioning how it will feel. Your brain can't tell the difference between a well-imagined thought and an actual experience, so this process will have your brain thinking that you already accomplished your goal!

3) Be Practical

It's game plan time. You know what you want, and now you need to map out exactly how you'll achieve it. And it's especially important to be practical in your planning, rather than throwing out ideas you know you won't stick with.

For example, with any weight loss goal it's important to 1) maintain a healthy lower calorie diet, and 2) participate in a consistent and challenging exercise program. It's also important to have a treat day, even if you are on a diet. That treat day can become motivation in itself.

Being practical looks like planning a routine that fits into your schedule, then you'll be more likely to stick with it. Also choose an exercise program that you enjoy—don't force yourself to jog everyday if you hate jogging!

4) Call For Backup

Warriors need allies. Enlist the support of your friends, family and co-workers.

Tell everyone about your goals and you'll be surprised how supportive most people will be. By being open about your goals you'll likely be an encouragement to others to make changes in their own lives.

Another way to ensure you meet your goals is to hire a certified coach or a relevant expert like a personal trainer. An ally like this will help you identify what really motivates you, help you design a routine and action plan that fits into your schedule and into your life—and help you see it through until your goal is met.

As a coach and personal trainer, I believe in my clients—and in turn they believe in themselves. Together this relationship with these 4 Simple Self-Motivating Mind Tricks helps awaken the Warrior Within!

If you liked this article about motivation, you may also like:

• Identify Motivational Language  Tool: What Words Inspire YOU To Take Action? (how this tool works & how you can use it!)
• Learn more about how to use our How Motivated is Your Client? Quiz
• Are you Listening to Your Own Inner Wisdom? Here are 7 Questions to help you!
• 5 Easy Ways To Achieve More & Set Yourself Up to Succeed in Your Business!

Contributing Author:

Tom Schweickert brings a unique combination as a Life Coach, Personal Trainer and Money Coach to help people negotiate these interesting times. Connect with Tom here on his Tax Directions website. As a coach and personal trainer, I believe in my clients - and in turn, they believe in themselves. This helps awaken the Warrior Within!

Learn more about Tom & see all their articles here >>