How to Motivate Yourself to Do Something You Don't Want to Do
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
You know you SHOULD nourish your body, you know you SHOULD move your body, you know you SHOULD drink more water, and give your body more rest, and say no when you want to say yes, and do all the things….But for some reason, you just CAN’T get yourself to do any of it.
Can you relate?
If you’re struggling to prioritize what you know you SHOULD be doing to be happier, healthier, more energized, or whatever aspect of your life this applies to, I know exactly how to get you motivated! In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I walk you through a visualization practice that will no doubt ignite your desire to do ALL the things you know you should be doing.
If you loved this episode, and you want more motivation, I know you will also love...
Episode 53: A Simple Practice for Letting Go of Your Negative Thoughts & Feelings
Putting these practices together is the perfect combination for building a stronger mindset!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
This is for the woman who is struggling to prioritize what she knows she should be doing. All right, sister, this is an episode to save because it's a message that I know you're going to need to hear from time to time. So I wanted to record it so that you're able to press play whenever you're feeling down, unmotivated, off-track, hopeless. I really hope that this episode brings you value.
But before I dive in, I want to share the review of the day. First, [Peter48 00:01:01] says, "What I've been looking for. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Not to get too personal, but I've prayed for the words you have said in so many of your episodes, Julie. I've suffered from disordered eating since I was 12 years old. The knowledge, encouragement that you have shared is something that years of treatment, therapists and medications have never been able to break through for me personally. Thank you."
Thank you so much for the review. I seriously love them so much. I read them daily. I love chatting with you guys in the DM. So if you do leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it takes less than 60 seconds, please screenshot it and send it to me in a DM. I love personally connecting back with you guys.
Okay, so if you're struggling to prioritize what you know you should be doing to be happier or healthier or more energized or whatever aspect of your life this applies to, I want you to take a moment to visualize where you want to be one year from now. So this could be in your health, your relationships, how you feel, where you're living financially. I mean, there's so many aspects to this. If you don't want to get too deep in all of these aspects, pick one. Pick one place.
This could be your self-talk. This could be physical. This could be relational, whatever it is that applies to. I want you to pick one topic first, and I want you to visualize where you want to be one year from now. Get as detailed as possible in this visualization. Now, if you're listening to this and you're like, "Visualization? I don't even know what that means," essentially all it means is vividly imagining something, which is so incredible because our minds pretty much do the work for us. Our minds are incredible, but we just have to give ourselves the time and space to allow that vivid imagination to come to life.
So if you can, get in a place where you are distraction-free for five to ten minutes max, and I want you to get as detailed as possible in this visualization. So close your eyes and pick that one thing that you want to be focusing on to be happier or healthier, more energized, whatever aspect of life this applies to.
And I want you to visualize how you feel. How do you feel in this moment? You're one year from now, how do you feel? How do you look? What does it look like? Or how do you look? Or how does the situation look? How happy are you? Really think vividly, and really try to allow yourself to feel the feelings of happiness of you being able to live in your purpose, or you being able to accomplish that goal. Where are you? Look around you in this imagination. Where are you in this moment, one year from now? Who are you with? Get as detailed as possible. The more detail that you can get the better, which is why I really believe that if you're in a place where you're distraction-free, it allows your imagination to go wild.
Then I want you to become aware of the feelings that it brings up inside of you when thinking about being where you want to be one year from now. I'm sure if you did this and you did this intentionally, it probably feels amazing, right? The people that you're with, the feelings of happiness that you're experiencing, the things that you are allowing yourself to feel in this moment, probably feel incredible. How badly do you want to experience all of that one year from now? Think about how beautiful it would be if you achieve that goal, or if you were in this place financially or physically or mentally or emotionally or whatever it is. It probably feels incredible.
Now I want you to visualize yourself one year from now, but the thing is, you were in the exact same place as you are right now. You feel the same. You look the same. Your life is exactly the same. The problems, the things, everything is the same. Visualize what that would look like one year from now if this were actually your reality. Take a moment to really allow that to sink in. What feelings does that visual bring up inside of you, thinking about being in the exact same spot one year from now?
For many of you listening, I'm guessing that's probably a pretty scary feeling. It probably brings up feelings of anxiousness, stress, depression, guilt, shame, unhappiness, exhaustion. Especially after the year that we've had. I know this is probably a negative feeling, but I want you to keep that feeling inside of you right now, because I want you to allow that feeling to be your motivation for prioritizing what you need to do to get up and do it.
Every time you want to skip a workout or movement, every time you want to skip counting your macros or nourishing your body intentionally, or skip whatever it is that makes you feel your best or whatever it is that you need to do to reach your goals, remind yourself of the feeling that you're feeling right now. Remind yourself that you do not want to be in the same exact spot. Even if you're in an amazing spot right now, as human beings, we always strive for more. You're always capable of more.
And the beautiful thing is that you're capable of what you're going to experience in a year. Everything that you're learning and growing through right now is only going to bring you one step closer, but you have to allow yourself to want to grow. You have to allow yourself to get outside your comfort zone and to continue to push past all of the resistance, continue to push past that place of comfort that our body says, "No, just stay here." Push past that because we are capable of so many things. And when you allow those two feelings to be inside of you, the feeling of accomplishing the goal and seeing where you're at and feeling those feelings of happiness, of achieving the goals, and then allowing yourself to feel the feelings of what it would feel like to be in the same exact spot one year from now, allow both of those things to be your motivation for prioritizing what you need to do right now.
To give you a little bit more of a pep talk. I have a few thoughts that I want to share with you on this topic. Six months of hardcore focus and alignment can put you five years ahead of your life. So I don't want you to underestimate the power of consistency, the power of desire and the power of persistence. These three things can take you places that you didn't even know that you could go and they can take you anywhere that you want to go or become. You have what it takes to become the best you that you can be. Stop doubting yourself. Take the time to invest in yourself and harness your power. And when you do, you, my girl, will exceed your expectations and you will live in abundance.
If you love this episode and you want more motivation, I know you'll also love episode 53, a simple practice of letting go of your negative thoughts and feelings. So be sure to tune into that. I think putting this practice together with these visualizations would be the perfect combination for building a stronger mindset. I've linked that episode in the show notes. So if you haven't already tuned in, or if you want to go back and tune in now that you've heard this, and combine those two practices together, I'm so excited to see where it takes you. I'm excited to see what comes from it.
If you have two people in your life that you feel could benefit from this short and quick episode, please send it to them in a text message. You can post it up on your story. You can do what you need to do to make sure that this episode gets in the hands of those who need to hear it. I love you so much. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, JulieALedbetter, yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode.
Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.