Have you ever been in the audience watching a really good motivational speaker? Do you recall how you felt while this person was working the crowd into a fury of positivity with inspiring stories that installed visions of success and bliss into the minds of the audience?
“I AM POWERFUL! I CAN DO ANYTHING I SET MY MIND TO!”, you declared to yourself as you sat in the crowd, feeding off of the energy in the room.
When you left this speech you were ready to take on the world. You were determined to throw away your bad habits and grab life by the balls! From this moment on things were going to change for you.
You declared to the heavens that you are no longer that same person!
How long did this last? An hour, a day, a week, a month? When you got back to your daily routine on Monday you may have started the week with an optimistic conviction that things where different now. You even started to take action on a couple of items that you had been procrastinating.
But by the end of the week you were back to your same routine and same bad habits as your same old self.
What happened? Why didn’t this motivation last? Why can’t you feel the way that you felt walking out of that speech everyday of your life.
The reason is because external motivation is temporary. When the source of your motivation is right there in front of you, you can feed off of that motivation. But when that source goes away, they take that spark with them.
The only way to keep yourself performing at that enlightened state is to be your own motivation every day. You have to turn your higher self into your own motivational speaker and develop the ability to call upon him everyday.
Don’t get me wrong, I love watching and listening motivational speakers, movies, videos, books, and audio’s as much if not more than the next guy. But these only serve as reminders to me that when the video is over, I still have to be own motivation.
How do you do that you ask? The answer is in the dialogue happening in your brain all day every day. It’s that voice that is constantly running in the background. It’s a result of the mental programming that you have received since you were born and any efforts you’ve made to control that programming.
This programming can tell you that you’re not good enough and you’re not a person who normally eats right and enjoys working out. This program tells you that you’re safe and comfortable in your vices and to be more successful would require giving up too much of who you are. It would require change and change is uncomfortable and scary.
What if instead this voice was your own motivational coach telling you that when you work out you feel alive inside of your body and that you love the way that healthy food makes you feel and look? What if it told you that you are an infinite source of love, strength, and success?
What if you could change that conversation going on in your head everyday?
Would that make you better at reaching your fitness goals, or any other goals that you have? Damn right it would!
You can change that dialogue. You don’t have to be the same person today that you were yesterday.
Most of us are stuck in our heads living in a repetitive, egotistical cycle in what scientists call our Default Mode Network (DMN). I implore you to look it up. It’s the constant dialogue happening in your brain when you are not purposely thinking about anything in particular. It’s a voice that is constantly thinking about the past or making mental movies about worse-case scenarios of the future. It’s the voice in your head that tells you that you’re too stupid, insecure, and undeserving of what you want. It’s a voice that keeps you in fear and anger.
Try consciously listening to this voice sometime. Just observe it without attaching to the thoughts. It’s like listening to 5 year old ramble on about nonsense.
Once you are able to subjectively listen to this voice you will have the ability understand how absurd it sounds at times and you will gain some personal insight as to how this voice is running your life.
Here’s where it gets really interesting. That part of you that is listening to that adolescent in your brain jibber-jabber about nonsense, the part of you that can become the observer of your own thoughts, that is your higher self. That’s the part of you that you can train to be your own motivational coach.
How do you that? One effective technique is to combine mindful meditation with affirmations.
Mindful mediation allows you to disconnect from the default mode network and in increase coherence throughout your brain. In general, mindful mediation means focusing all of you attention on 1 thing, typically your breath, or one part of your breath like the chest, belly, or throat.
To do so just get comfortable, close your eyes, and focus all of your attention on your breath. When other thoughts come in, as they will, often at first, don’t judge them or let them stir any emotion in you, simply cut your thought off mid-sentence and say to yourself something like “back to breath” or “be here now” and refocus your attention back on your breath.
Each time you catch your mind wondering off and are able to bring it back to your breath is like performing one set in a workout.
It’s easier said than done at first but with time and effort you’ll get better and better at it. Trust me, it’s well worth the effort. Start with short sessions of 10 minutes and work your way up in time as your mind evolves.
Once you are able to pull yourself into your higher self, now is the time to implant those positive motivational thoughts into your mind. Follow your mediation up with “I am” and “I love” affirmations. Declare to yourself that you are all those things you want to be and that you enjoy all those things that you know will enhance your life.
Just keep your affirmations in a positive tense. Avoid negatives like “I never” or “I hate”.
Say them to yourself with determination and energy and you’ll start to believe them. Vibrate high with love and inspiration while you say them.
Make this part of you morning routine and begin each day with this technique.
Congratulations. Now you are your own motivational speaker.
