Dissatisfaction should be your Motivation!

Personal dissatisfaction helps drive changes in habits or lifestyles. When you become dissatisfied with how you look, you can either continue to feel sorry for yourself or decide to do something about it. Now of course, in order for personal dissatisfaction to prompt change, you must change the condition that is causing your dissatisfaction.

Finding the Motivation

Finding the motivation to change means maintaining your efforts consistently when it would be easy to give up. It involves doing everything possible to achieve your change goals.

Motivation to change begins with what I call the three D's. The first D stands for direction. Before you can begin the process of change, you must first consider the different directions you can go in your life. You could continue your life as it is now, make immediate and dramatic changes, or take a slower route to change.

The second D represents decision. With these three choices of direction, you must decide on one direction in which to go. None of these directions is necessarily right or wrong, better or worse, they're simply your options. Your choice will dictate whether you make changes in your life and the amount of time and effort you put into those changes.

The third D stands for dedication. Once you've made your decision, you must dedicate yourself to it. If your decision is to makes significant changes in your life, whether quickly or slowly, then this last step will determine whether those changes are realized. Your decision to change will then become a top priority in your life. Only by being completely dedicated to your direction and decision will you ensure that you have the motivation you will need to achieve your change goals.

Defining Motivation

Let's first consider what motivation is in very practical terms. Motivation can be defined in the following ways:

An internal or external drive that prompts a person to action;

The ability to initiate and persist toward a chosen objective;

Putting 100% of your time, effort, energy, and focus into your goal attainment;

Being able to pursue change in the face of obstacles, boredom, fatigue, stress, and the desire to do other things;

The determination to resist ingrained and unhealthy patterns and habits;

Doing everything you can to make the changes you want in your life.

Impact of Motivation

But it’s one thing to saying you are motivated to make changes and achieve your goals; it's another entirely different thing to have that motivation translate into actual action toward those goals. Motivation is so important because it impacts every aspect of your efforts at change:

Preparation to make the changes;

Patience in giving yourself time for the changes to occur;

Persistence when old habits and patterns resist your efforts;

Perseverance in overcoming obstacles and setbacks;

Lifestyle that supports the changes;

Ultimate achievement of the desired changes.

Effort vs. Goals

All else being equal, whatever you put into your change efforts is what you will get out of them. A problem I see among many people who say they want to change is disconnected between their efforts and their goals. People say they really want to change, but their efforts don't reflect that stated motivation. What this tells me is that there is often a gap between the goals many people have and the effort they are putting into those goals. It's easy to say that you want to change. It is much more difficult to actually make that happen. If you have this kind of disconnect, you have two choices. You can either lower your change goals to match your efforts or you can raise your efforts to match your goals. There is no right choice. But if you're truly motivated to change, you better make sure you're doing the work necessary to achieve your goals.

Many people have told me that they are dissatisfied with their weight and wanted my advice on what to do to lose weight without quitting during the process. Here are my basic tips:

Go on a weight loss program to include a nutrition and workout plan.

Eat less food and give up the late night snacks.

Listen to success stories of other people who have achieved weight loss goals for motivation.

Stay consistent for 8 weeks and try on clothes which have previously become too small for you. Notice that they will fit again!!

There are things in life we cannot change such as our height, color, etc. however other things can be changed and that is the beautiful thing about our body, WILLITANDITWILL… There is a great deal of wisdom involved in knowing the difference.

Source

www.psychologytoday.com www.centerforchange.com