In an effort to keep Rock-It-Ober going full steam ahead, I have decided to keep posting this month on the theme of momentum and providing tools we can use to keep ourselves on track or tools that we can use to get ourselves back on track. Ultimately tools for setting ourselves up for success.
I am very proud to report that I went to bed early last night (after getting everything I needed around and packed) so that I could get up early today to feed/walk the dogs and get ready to go run at the gym before work. Not only did I get up to go run at the gym before work, I actually ran at the gym before work.
Bow chicka wow wow!
Now that felt good. Baby steps. Or rather Silly Stupid Simple Steps.
Huh? What?
While on my way to run a quick errand the other night, I turned on my SiriusXM radio and tuned to COSMO Radio to catch a few minutes of the Love and Sex Show with Dr. Jenn Berman. This is a nightly radio show dealing with everything and anything. All the things. Not just love and sex. It is COSMO, so you know, they gotta represent.
Anyhow, in the 3 minutes or so I was able to catch the show, a caller had phoned in about failing in her goals. She wanted to lose weight but could not get the motivation to get on the gym like she wanted to. Dr. Jenn's response was brilliant and totally hit home, echoing my points about setting ourselves up for SUCCESS, not FAILURE.
So here is another tool to put into your tool box for success: Silly Stupid Simple Steps
I realized that I already do this when it comes to my to-do lists. I will literally add something to the list that I am just about to do, if only so that I can cross it off when I am done. I feel so good about crossing something off from the list that I work on crossing another thing off of the list until I have so much momentum that I am working on the harder things to cross off the list. I use the easy to-do's as kindling to light the fire so that I can tackle the more daunting tasks. Boom.
While Dr. Jenn did not phrase it exactly as Silly Stupid Simple Steps - she is way more educated than I and I just happen to like alliteration - her general response was that if we beat ourselves up for failing at our goals, over time we feel not good enough; as if we are not dependable to ourselves. We start to feel as if we will never achieve our goals because we cannot trust ourselves to accomplish them. "I always fail." "I never can do this." "I will just quit anyhow." We set "perfection" goals that do nothing but set us up for failure. We are too black and white, all or nothing.
She said that instead of setting the goal of let's say going to the gym 6 days a week for 60 minutes a day, that we should start off with a simple cannot fail goal. Her example was the goal of "one day this week I will go for a 15 minute walk."
Silly Stupid Simple Steps. Not silly as in funny, or stupid as in dumb but rather silly-stupid as in super super easy to reach goals. The lowest of low hanging fruit possible. Simple as in not complicated, and steps as in there will be a lot of them ahead of us; we just take them one at a time.
You know you get a lot of pleasure from crossing off something from the list, or clicking the check mark on a completed task. This is the same thing! We want to build up those check marks. We want to prime the pump. Once we set up a series of no-fail steps and achieve them it alters our internal thought process. We go from thinking doubt and fear to feeling motivated and accomplished. This rebuilds our egos and renews our self confidence. Also, it builds momentum. Momentum is a very good thing. Momentum is what keeps us going.
So my Silly Stupid Simple Step towards success for this week was getting my butt to the gym this morning. There. Nailed it. I am building upon it tomorrow with the stretch goal of going to swimming in the morning with my masters team. Stretch goals are those goals that are nice if we accomplish them, but they are stretched past the goals we hope to achieve, the mandatory goals. I need to do this (goal) but would be ecstatic and over the moon happy if I could do this little extra (stretch goal). Stretch goals are the 200% achievement in the world.
So what are some of your Silly Stupid Simple Steps that you need to take to get on track? Your baby steps? If you are already on track, did you do something similar to taking easy goals to build momentum?
What are some other tools you have for motivation and building momentum in your life?
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