Ep. 67: How-to Harness Momentum and Motivation

If gaining momentum and staying motivated towards your new goal or project seem daunting, I’ve broken down 5 steps to help you both get started and keep going!

We’re back with our 67th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

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Episode 67 Transcription

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the unsung secret to success and motivation; momentum. How to get it started, and how to keep it going.

Cassy Joy: And we’re back with another episode of the Fed and Fit Podcast! I’m so excited to have you here, I’m so excited to be talking to you! This is going to be a great episode. Today’s podcast, the topic for it, is a little bit of a passion project of mine. It’s not just something that I’m fascinated by, but it’s something that I’ve personally struggled with over the years. I tend to be a very introspective person; I guess I just like to figure stuff out, which is {laughs} if you’re a long time listener, you’ve probably realized that about me. I like to take a concept that might seem confusing, or foggy, or difficult to put your finger on, and wrap your mind around. I like to take those kinds of concepts, and I think on them. I spend a lot of time just mentally breaking them down.

My sweet husband listens {laughs} to my first drafts of trying to figure things out; that’s what takes up a lot of the time in our long road trips across the country together. Because we live in Texas, and in Texas, everywhere is in driving distance it seems {laughs} to be. I’m in San Antonio, and Dallas Texas, for example, which sounds like it should just be around the corner, is a solid 5, 5-1/2 hours drive. But we drive everywhere, it’s really fun.

Anyways, and we spend a lot of time talking about a bunch of different topics that are just brain busters, I guess, for no better way to put it. And one thing that has perplexed me over the years that I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around through high school, in college, post college, and then as a professional who is really working to start a business, and then also just better myself, is how to stay motivated. Right?

And not just; that sounds like a very simple question. I don’t think that the answer we’re looking for; when I’m asked that, “how do you stay so motivated to your work?” The answer that I’m going to give them to that question isn’t probably the answer that they’re looking for. Because the answer to how do I stay motivated is a very simple one. It’s I really, really love what I do, and if you can’t tell; if you’re a listener to this podcast, it’s probably very apparent to you. I love this work. Now that gets me excited and keeps me motivated, and I’ll address staying motivated later in this episode.

But what that person asking me, “How do you stay so motivated?” what they’re probably wanting to ask is, “how do you even get motivated to start something?” Right? I think that is the real nugget of what people are looking for. They’re looking for that answer. “How do I even get started?” that is the most daunting part.

Get started on anything new is difficult, no matter which way you cut it. If it’s new to you, whether it’s new to your body, a new workout; whether it’s a new way of eating, whether it’s learning how to cook, maybe that’s new. Whether it’s; goodness, starting a podcast, or starting a blog, or starting a business. Anything new is going to present some form of difficulty. And how do you confront that difficulty and stay motivated at the same time; right? That is the real question I think people want answered.

And that’s a question that I even confront on a regular basis. Because there’s constantly things that I want to do personally more often. Maybe that is; like my beauty routine, for example. We’ve talked a lot about beauty on this podcast lately, but I love the idea of being a girl who has her a.m. and her p.m. beauty routine; you know, whether I wash my face with this stuff in the morning and this stuff in the evening, and I use these moisturizers, and then I also do a face mask, like that charcoal face mask I love so much. Maybe I do that two times a week, and maybe I do a hydrating mask two times a week right before I take an Epsom salt bath. I mean, all of that sounds awesome, and luxurious, and wonderful. But truth be told, I haven’t had a solid week following my beauty routine the way I would want to follow it! {laughs} and it’s because it’s difficult at this point in time. It’s not second nature. I’m a little bit of a tomboy deep down, that my sweet inner soul just aspires to be this very; you know, this fluent beauty person that uses all of these beautiful products and they’re really good for me, and they’re good for my skin because I love the way I feel when I use them, I just, they’re not a part of my second nature. So starting that motivation; you know, I’m excited about, but then it’s also difficult. So how do you balance the difficulty and the excitement that you might have at a new venture?

So anyway, that’s just one example. Another way that I seek motivation to start something new in my life would be; in writing this book, you guys, the book that’s coming out August 16th; whoop, whoop!! Writing Fed and Fit was difficult. There’s no way to cut it. It was not easy; I had to, I glued myself to a chair. I remember when I was writing the biggest part of the book was the front matter, and when you guys see it you’ll know what I’m talking about, but it’s about 100 pages of content. Kind of sciency; I tried to keep it as lively as possible, because I don’t have an appreciation for boring science read, so I tried to keep things exciting for anybody who wants that background information; knowing that not everybody is going to read it. But it was not easy to write, especially because it was just me talking to my computer.

So what I had to do, it was difficult, but I glued myself to a chair, I stocked up the refrigerator with sparkling water, and I turned my cell phone off. Completely off. I couldn’t; I had just discovered Snapchat at the time, {laughs} and all I wanted to d was log onto Snapchat, so I turned my phone off for 12 hours a day while I was writing that part of the book. And it was difficult, and it was new, and writing a book is unique because it’s a onetime project. You know, I might do one again in the future, but for all practical purposes, in terms of starting up a routine, and a new habit; you don’t develop a habit around writing something like that.

So there are things you can do to make those kinds of difficult moments easier on yourself and be able to follow through on them. One more example, because I just want this to be as relatable as possible; way that I’m trying to start something new and I’m trying to find motivation to stick through that difficult phase is; again, while writing the book, I wasn’t working out as much. You know, I wasn’t working out as much, I wasn’t cooking for myself as much, which is ironic because it’s a healthy cookbook, but once the cooking was done.

Cooking for the book was like a job. I mean, I made 8 recipes a day, and I ate off of those all day long, but the cooking for the book probably took me a good 3 months. And the rest of the year was writing and editing and tweaking things here and there. It wasn’t normal everyday life, where I’d meal prep my breakfast, and then I’d cook something fresh and delicious for dinner, and have a nice salad for lunch, and I didn’t have a stocked refrigerator all the time. I was a hot mess! {laughs} Truth be told, and I wasn’t working out as much, and I wasn’t cooking for myself as much. And trying to get back into that swing of things is difficult.

And I know that there’s a lot of people listening that maybe you are just starting; maybe you just had a baby, and the last year of your life or however long has been devoted to that newborn, and it’s a really precious, important moment. Because I talk to a lot of people, and I have clients that are trying to get back in the swing of things, you know. Baby is doing great, the family is doing great, now it’s time for mom to take care of herself again. How do we get started? How do we push through the difficulty, even though we’re excited about it, it still feels impossible.

So having all this fresh on my mind; and of course, these are things that I’m going to address, that will be addressed, I should say, in the online Fed and Fit Project, part of which is shown in the book so you’ll be able to read it in print; but is to hold your hand through the beginning stages until it feels like second nature, because that is the holy grail. That’s when we get to answer the question of how do you stay motivated. But the first part of the equation of even getting started is, how do you get motivated when things are actually really difficult? Because staying motivated is easier than getting motivated.

Ok, so the way that we’re going to address it today, because I made it up {laughing} and I spent a lot of time thinking about it, is I’m going to break it up. It’s really a 5-step process. But the first three steps are how to get momentum. How to get motivated. And how to get motivated is really about creating momentum. That’s what I want us to visualize. One of the; I love analogies, and I just live in this crazy mental world of I constantly picture and live out analogies, but starting something new, I like to visualize a giant boulder. Maybe it’s sitting on flat ground, maybe you’ve got a slight incline ahead of you; maybe it’s a false flat ahead of you {laughs}. It looks flat, but it’s actually a slight incline. Whatever it is, you’ve got a big boulder in front of you, and you’ve got to figure out a way to get this sucker moving, ok. And the bigger the goal you have, the bigger the boulder, and the heavier it weighs, and the more difficult it’s going to be at the beginning to get that guy rolling.

So that’s what the first three steps are about; is how to get that guy rolling. And I like to visualize that, and I’ll get to that in a second, but if we acknowledge that it is a thing to be dealt with. Starting something is more difficult than keeping it going. Because you can imagine in your mind, once you get that boulder rolling; an object in motion stays in motion, right? So once you get it going, it’s easier to keep it going. That real exertion of effort is important at the beginning. So that’s where we need to nurture. So the first three steps are how to get momentum; i.e. motivation, and the last two steps are how to keep going.

10.59.

Alrighty, so let’s get into them. So step number one; how to get momentum. How to get motivation, how to get started in something that you really, really want, but maybe it scares the heck out of you because you don’t know how to make it happen, you don’t know how you’re going to fit it into your schedule, you know it’s going to be difficult, and you don’t have time for something to be difficult right now, right? How do we get past all of that?

Number one, make a plan. It’s really that simple, and you probably saw that coming, but that really is the most important part. For me, sometimes that involves investing in a new planner. I bought a pretty little planner, and that kind of ties into step number three that I’m going to talk about in a second, but find a way to make a plan that excites you. Ok, so I’ve got my pretty little planner, and I wrote down what I wanted to do and when. The important part about a schedule, though, and making a plan is don’t make a plan on the day you plan to start. That is a recipe for disaster, because if you wake up, and you wake up, you make breakfast, you take the dog for a walk; maybe you pack the kids lunches and you send them off the school. And you’re like; alright. Today’s the day. Maybe you told yourself when you woke up; today’s the day. I’m going to start doing the things that I want to do for myself.

You’ve almost essentially spent the day, because you didn’t have a plan when you woke up. You weren’t working towards a schedule that you were going to be able to keep all day long. Because if you haven’t make a plan for that day that’s in line with your goals, then you’re normal habits are going to override. So you have to forcibly override your current habits by making a plan the day before. And if you don’t make a plan the day before, then tell yourself that today is the day that I make a plan, and I can start tomorrow.

I think that’s really important. I think protecting yourself from failure is really important at the beginning. And feeling like today is the day that I’m going to do it, and you wake up and you set that intention but you don’t actually have a plan that you’re able to follow through on is going to feel like a failure. So protect yourself from that feeling; there’s no reason to make this more difficult on you than it has to be. You can start tomorrow. {laughs} Ok, and that might sound like terrible advice; I’m not asking you to procrastinate. I’m saying, start the day after you make the plan. But make making the plan priority number one.

Ok. Now, what do you include in this plan? That varies. If your goal, and what you’re trying to get momentum around and start motivation around is about; maybe it’s about working out and getting into shape. Well then maybe your plan is sitting down and writing a schedule of how you’re going to do that tomorrow. Maybe you wake up 30 minutes earlier, and maybe that means you go to bed 30 minutes earlier. You don’t watch another episode with your husband of, I don’t know, right now I’m watching 30 Rock, I’m rewatching all those episodes. So maybe I watch one less 30 Rock episode, and I go to bed, and I wake up 30 minutes earlier, and in those early 30 minutes I go ahead and I make a healthy lunch for myself, and I prep dinner. That sounds really cool, because that means at the end of the day when I’m kind of low on energy and I’m less excited about making a home cooked meal, part of that work is already done. I’ve got in the bank, you know.

And maybe part of the rest of the plan on that day is I’ve looked up online when my yoga class, or Pilates class, or barre or Crossfit is having a class that works with my calendar of events. Maybe it works around your kid’s schedule, maybe it works around your work schedule. Pick a class and register for it; that becomes a part of your plan.

Deciding that you’re going to pack your workout clothes and take them with you somewhere; that becomes a part of your plan. What you wear in the morning, setting out clothes for the next day. Maybe if you want to go to an early morning yoga class, you know that you’re more inclined to actually do that if you have yoga pants set out next to your bed. That can be a part of your plan. Ok, so make a plan, and then use that plan to kick off the momentum. That’s a really; it’s an easy way to start, and it will make life much easier on you.

Ok, I could go into a whole lot more ways to make a plan, you know; deciding what you’re going to eat, how much water you’re going to drink, things like that. If you’re looking to start a new business venture, maybe part of your make it plan is, I’m going to wake up, and I’m going to email 5 people that I think of as mentors and I’m going to ask them for advice.” Ok, write it down, make a plan.

15.52

Alright, number two of how to get momentum is to acknowledge the difficulty. I think this is also really important; protecting yourself from feeling failure. If you’re starting something new, and maybe it’s just general healthy living. You just generally want to live a healthier, more active lifestyle. You think; well what could be tough about that? All these other people do it, and they make it look so easy. Well if you get into that, and you expect it to be easy, and then it’s not, you might feel a sense of failure. Like, what is wrong with me? Why is this so hard for me and it’s so easy for other people?

The reason it’s difficult is because it’s new, and you just need to acknowledge that. And by acknowledging the difficulty, you kind of set yourself free from that difficulty. Pushing that boulder; the work involved is just about pushing the boulder. It’s not about worry about why it’s hard. Or is it hard for other people? Is it harder for me than it is for other people? Don’t worry about that. Focus on the work. It is difficult for absolutely everybody who starts something new; 1000%. It’s difficult. So just focus on the work, don’t worry about whether or not it should or shouldn’t be easier for you. Just acknowledge that it’s going to be difficult. Set yourself free from that possible sense of failure.

17.25

Ok, and number 3 tip that I have after years and years of {laughs} trying to demystify for my own sake, and for one day sharing it with others of how to get momentum and get past the difficulty at the beginning of a new project; is to hide your own Easter eggs. This is my favorite one, ok because this is the one that’s really worked for me. You know, I know to make a plan, I know that now after years of doing stuff. I know that if I want to get back in the swing of working out and going to Crossfit and going to yoga; which I enjoy once I’m doing it, and it becomes easier once you’re doing it. But getting started feels impossible, right?

So once I know that I already need to make a plan, I’ve already scheduled myself for my yoga, my Crossfit, and maybe I created an accountability system around that. Maybe that was a part of my plan, is to tell my coaches that I’m coming, you know? I’ve already acknowledged that it’s going to be difficult and I’ve forgiven myself for whatever difficulty is ahead, my third favorite one that requires a little bit more creative thought, is hiding my own Easter eggs. Now this is where you can really have fun with a new project, right?

Difficulty in starting something new does not have to be miserable. By nature, because it’s difficult, it’s not necessarily fun, you know. I don’t really enjoy going and lifting heavy weights and doing FRAN, which is a Crossfit workout for those of you who are not familiar with Crossfit. I don’t like going and doing FRAN after I’m fresh off of not working for maybe 3 or 4 weeks. Because it’s hard, you know. So that’s difficult in and of itself, and it’s not exactly fun. But I can make it fun if I hide an Easter egg in that experience.

Ok, so this is what I mean. So you take something that’s difficult, and you hide an Easter egg in it. So maybe you want to clean the house. Cleaning the house may not be fun. Maybe some of you listening love cleaning the house; that’s great. But you’re probably already on a path of doing it. I’m talking to the people who want to get into a habit of doing it, they’re starting it, right. So maybe cleaning the house is one of your goals. It’s the one thing you want to start new; it feels like that impossible boulder. How do I keep this house cleaned all the time, and stay excited and not miserable while I’m doing it?

An Easter egg you can hide in cleaning the house is that while you’re cleaning the house, you can listen to your favorite podcast. I’m not suggesting this one, I listen to a bunch of other podcasts. One of my current favorites is Beautiful Anonymous; that’s a really great podcast, especially if you like this kind of introspective work. So I will let myself listen to Beautiful Anonymous, for example, when I’m cleaning the house. And then I kind of look forward to it.

Or maybe I listen to my favorite audio book while I’m cleaning the house; and I don’t let myself listen to that audio book unless I’m mopping or sweeping or vacuuming or giving my kitchen the deep scrub it desperately deserves. That’s an Easter egg I can hide in that not so pleasant activity because I have not built up momentum around it already, it’s not already second nature, I don’t enjoy it at the moment, I just have to get through the initial push. So I’ve hidden this fun little Easter egg in it that I can look forward to, and it becomes more entertaining for myself and easier. This whole thing is about making the beginning part easier, at the same time acknowledging that it’s difficult and a little sucky.

Ok, number two. Maybe you’re trying to work out, so the difficult thing is working out. Like gosh darn it, this is not fun at the beginning. Starting something new like that, especially when it requires physical exertion; not exactly fun and exciting. It can be a little humbling, it can be painful, it can be uncomfortable. You might feel not very coordinated. So how do we hide an Easter egg in that activity? Well, I would suggest asking a friend to go and laughing through it. That could be an Easter egg. Having a friend sign up for that barre class that you’re really excited about but you know is probably going to be really tough; have a friend go through it with you, that could be really fun! Maybe the two of you afterwards you go and have a very nice, refreshing salad. Maybe you could get some juice, some green juice or something while you’re out. That could be your Easter egg.

That may be why so many people who work out go out afterwards and get themselves a green juice, or a smoothie, or a salad. {laughs} maybe it’s because that’s they’re Easter egg, right? They’ve got something hidden in the activity that’s more fun, it’s not about the activity, but because they did the activity, they are now having this other thing.

Another way to motivate and hide an Easter egg in a workout, it’s one of my favorite things, I’m glad that my husband can’t hear me right now, but it’s to buy new workout gear. And I’m not saying you should go buy a new pair of shorts every week, or a new pair of tennis shoes; but let’s be honest, especially to the ladies. It can be really fun; you get a new pair of shiny new shoes; I’m thinking about my neon orange shoes that I love so much. But as soon as I got those, you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to go workout in them. {laughs} I wanted, and I didn’t care if there was another person in the gym that would see them, I just wanted to be sitting there doing crunches and V-ups and be able to look at my pretty orange shoes while I was doing it. That was an Easter egg for me in that activity.

So assess what excites you; is it community? Is it working out with a friend, spending time with a friend or a sister or a colleague in that regard? Is it grabbing a green juice afterwards or a salad? Or is it fitness garb? Is it having a cool new headband, or I don’t know, an awesome new sports bra. Victoria’s Secret, for example, makes amazing sports bras, and I didn’t discover them until recently. That makes me want to go get my sweat on, so I can wear it and feel like; I don’t know, feel like I used it the way it was intended to be used. So hide an Easter egg in working out like that.

Let’s see; other activities. Folding laundry; oh my gosh. I don’t enjoy doing laundry. I really, really don’t. So it’s constantly, every time I do laundry, I’m starting with a boulder that’s at a dead standstill. {laughs} You know? I’m walking up to this giant boulder going; ugh, here we go! Here we go, you and me. I’m going to make a plan, and I’m going to acknowledge it is difficult, and I’m going to hide an Easter egg in this situation because there’s no way that this is going to be fun for me.

So my Easter egg while folding laundry is I let myself watch TV. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV. I love my work, it’s something that I really like to dig into. Heck; I’m recording this on a Saturday afternoon, because this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to record a podcast about motivation on a Saturday afternoon. It’s also 1000 degrees outside, so that had something to do with it, maybe, but I love my work. I don’t love doing laundry, so I don’t always watch a whole lot of TV. I might, at the end of the day. But when I fold laundry, if I’m spending a day doing laundry, maybe I’ve washed all the sheets in the house, we had guests and I’m doing all the towels, I put on 30 Rock, I talked about that, I’m also watching Gray’s Anatomy. I feel like I missed the boat on Gray’s Anatomy over the last however many 10+ years it’s been on the air, so I’m watching that, and I’m getting caught up, and it’s really fun for me, and that’s the Easter egg in folding laundry and doing laundry, is I get to watch TV.

Another Easter egg; let’s say you are dreading. I hope you guys like these examples; and let me know in the comments on the blog how you feel about how the podcasts are being structured. I’m kind of mixing things up a little bit, and I’d love to get your feedback. But let’s say that you’re going out with friends to an event. Let’s say it’s a bachelorette party at a bar, or it’s a bridal shower, or it’s a baby shower, or it’s just a friend’s birthday party and it’s at a restaurant. And everybody has a cocktail but you. Ok, and what if you’re in the middle of the Fed and Fit Project, and one of your intentions you set at the beginning of the project was that you were going to try to go without a cocktail for 4 weeks so you could feel your best and use that of course to make really groundbreaking decisions about yourself in the future. It’s not that cocktails are always out; y’all know that I like a good margarita, but you’re in the middle of that. That’s difficult when you’re in that situation to not have a cocktail when you love cocktails and everybody else around you has one. How do you stay motivated to say, no thank you, I don’t want that margarita.

So one of the ways that I do it, an Easter egg that I hide in that scenario is I will think of a really fun non-cocktail beverage that I can order. And it becomes kind of a fun Easter egg for me. I will go to the bar; most every bar will have club soda or sparkling water of some sort. And even though sparkling water is better than club soda in terms of added ingredients, that’s ok. This is progress, not perfection, right? Ask for some of that sparkling goodness over; sometimes I will ask for it on the rocks with salt and some lime juice {laughs}. So I’ll be walking around with essentially a margarita sans the alcohol, but with little bubbles. And it becomes a fun little drink for me to sip on. It’s not about the alcohol at that point, it’s about having a fun little beverage. Everybody else has fun little beverages, so why can’t you? Get creative. Hide a fun Easter egg like that, that kind of a really fun thing to sip on and not feel like you’re missing out.

I’ve even gone; I really like dirty martinis, for example, with gin, so when I was in a, I really didn’t want alcohol for health reasons, I just wanted, I had a goal. I wanted to get to a baseline of feeling great, because I needed to make a decision of whether another food was affecting me. And I was at a Texas A&M whoop! I was at a Texas A&M football function, and everybody had a cocktail, and everyone was having a good time and I really wanted a dirty martini so I went up to the bartender, and I was like, can you do me an odd favor? And he was like, sure. I was like, can you put a little bit of water, and I think I also added sparkling water, and then I asked for olive juice and olives. I had a dirty sparkling water. And it was exactly what I wanted. Anyways; that was a really fun thing for me to do for myself. It made it fun and not about missing out; it made it about being creative.

I could give you more examples, but I’m sure you could think of them on your own. So those are the three things to do to get that darn boulder moving to get started. That really, when people say, “how do you stay so motivated?” I really think they’re asking about how do you even get started in the first place, right? We make a plan, we acknowledge the difficulty, and then we start by hiding Easter eggs in those difficult situations.
28.27

Alrighty. Now, let’s move on to their question. Their original question; “how do you stay motivated?” well let’s talk about that, because that’s a thing to talk about too. It’s a real thing. Staying motivated and excited about something that has become second nature, you know, isn’t as intuitive as you think. You might see a really fit, healthy person walking around, and you might think; gosh, staying fit and healthy must be so easy for them. And truth be told, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Maybe they’re a little bored. Maybe they miss the challenge. Maybe they like pushing on big boulders and getting started. So how do we stay motivated? How do we keep going once those habits we were trying to form have become second nature?

So number one is intentionally hone your excitement and commitment. So once it has become second nature, and we’ve got that boulder rolling, we’re moving. We may only need to nudge it every 20 feet or so, we just give it a little nudge. And that’s easy. We can be sitting our sparkling dirty water, olive juice water, on the side and nudging that boulder with one hand {laughing}. You can see my commitment to analogies, it’s really how my brain works. So how do we stay excited about that boulder? Because excitement and commitment are vital to staying the course on something. Whether it’s a business you’re trying to launch; how do I stay excited about this? I’ve been doing Fed and Fit for almost 6 years now, and I still feel like I’m in my honeymoon stage. And it’s because I intentionally hone my excitement and commitment to it.

So if you’re finding a new thing boring, challenge yourself to keep feeling fresh. Now maybe if it’s fitness related, let’s say you’ve been going to yoga, and you’ve got all the yoga moves down. You can do all the poses, they’re not difficult for you anymore; you essentially show up to your 90 minute class, and you go through the motions and you walk out, and you’re glad you went, but you don’t have that sense of awesome accomplishment that you used to have. Right? Because that awesome accomplishment helps fuel that excitement, and that commitment. So when that’s kind of gone, and it feels; you know, your Crossfit workouts are feeling easier. What the heck is up with that? Crossfit used to feel impossible. It’s because you’re getting better, your body is progressing, and you’ve met maybe your goals. How do you keep yourself fresh? On the cutting edge of that excitement.

So I encourage you to integrate, if it’s fitness related, integrate a new fitness class. Find something new. Test yourself. Push yourself in a different area altogether. Maybe that means if you love Crossfit, maybe that means signing up for an Olympic lifting class, or a power lifting class. Or maybe that means going and signing up for a yoga class if you’ve never done one in your life. That could be really exciting, and I bet it would benefit your Crossfit game more than you might ever expect possible. Maybe that means signing up for Pilates, or barre, or running, or I’m at a loss. Swimming! Signing up for a triathlon, some sort of endurance event. That could be really fun, and give you that fresh sense of commitment. So keep stirring the pot of things that are new and exciting, and know that just because you’ve arrived doesn’t mean all of a sudden that it’s going to stay easy to stay excited.

Let’s say when it’s food related; how do you stay excited about keep cooking from home and healthy food? I remember you guys, and you may have heard me say this before, but when I started paleo, I didn’t really cook recipes. I would grill chicken, and I ate raspberries, and I ate like, oh gosh what; I ate sweet potatoes because white potatoes were not considered paleo back then and this was before I really did any thinking for myself. I remember I ate raspberries, chicken, and sautéed spinach, and the occasional sweet potato, but only after I worked out. That was before I realized the importance of carbohydrates throughout the day; which you can learn more about in my book.

And I ate that meal over and over and over and over again for 9 months, really, almost a full year. And I was bored. I had it down, my body was changing and I felt great for the first time ever. That cloud had been lifted. I was thinking more clearly, I had more energy than ever, but oh my gosh, I didn’t look forward to eating. And I’m a foodie! I love food. So I challenged myself by learning how to cook, and learning how to cook healthy recipes that were exciting and delicious. So that was a way that I intentionally honed my excitement and my commitment, was by kind of upping the game, essentially, and keeping a variety.

33.22

Ok, last one. So how do you stay motivated in something that has become easier, right? So the ball is rolling, we’re just kind of nudging it every once in a while. One of my secrets to staying motivated is that I have sought and contribute to I guess live-in, have integrated myself into a community that wants what I want. So my number two piece for staying motivated is to seek a community that wants what you want.

Now, whether that is just general health and wellness for your family and yourself, find that community. If it is constantly pushing yourself and bettering yourself physically, becoming more physically fit and staying fresh and sharp in that regard, find that community. Whether it is eating really healthy, wonderful foods and cooking delicious recipes, find that community. If it’s starting a business, and jumping in and going for it even though it’s really difficult at the beginning, and maybe you’re rolling, you’ve got a few years under your belt and you might be feeling a little bit bored by it; find a community that wants the next step and surround yourself by those people. Talk to each other, pat each other on the back, do each other favors, and know that sometimes those are going to be some of the most important friendships in your life. Not just because they’re going to help you stay motivated, but because maybe; I don’t know. Those friendships are just easier. Some of my best friends I found later in life because, business-wise, we all want the same things. We want the world to be healthier and happier, and we want to do everything we can to help make that happen. And maybe that means supporting our friends and colleagues. So find a community that wants what you want.

Now, how do you do that? That can be a little confusing. Maybe it is at your gym, you finally start going to those gym activities. I bet, if you go to a gym, I bet they plan, a couple of times a month or however often it is, they go after a Friday workout and they all go have dinner together. Go to those. Go meet people outside the gym. Go spend some time getting to know people.

Virtually; it’s really simple with today’s day and age. Log onto Instagram, man, and start following some hashtags that you like and start finding people that align with what you want, and let that be your community and let that inspire you and keep you fresh and motivated, knowing that you’re in a healthy community, there are other people like you, you’re definitely not alone.

And you know, the really more intense way to go, and I encourage all of you to think about this, I think this is something that everybody could do. I’m not saying you should do it, but I think you could, is to start a blog. Start a community of a support system by you being the spearhead. You know, if there’s something you want to see in the world; you want to see people to be more, let’s see, think more critically about the cleaning products they use in their house, and that’s something you feel really, really, really passionately about, then start a blog and talk about it. I’m sure you’ll develop other interests as time goes on, but by starting a blog, whether it’s an actual website blog or maybe it is just a social media blog, you go onto Instagram or Snapchat; where else are we on social media {laughs} Twitter, Pinterest. Whether you’re going onto the internet and you’re creating and cultivating content in that regard; maybe you’re Instagram blogging about all the things that are important to you, people will find you. Your community will still find you.

All of you listeners here, it’s never more apparent than when we get to interact on Snapchat and Instagram; all of you guys, we’re birds of a feather. We really have, we’ve found each other, we’re a community, we’re a support system, and that helps keep me motivated. So seek a community that wants what you want.

Alrighty. Ok, and lastly I just want to touch on this very quickly; but it’s important to note that taking breaks are healthy. I really do believe that. I believe that taking breaks, whether it’s a break from working out. Gosh, when I was doing Crossfit and yoga years ago, I was crossfitting 5 times a week and I was yogaing 3 times a week, and I was running and doing distance marathons. Every 6 months or so, I would take 2 weeks off of everything. Now, I recommend rest days throughout the week. I like 2, I think two is the magic number of rest days. But in addition to that, every 6 months or so, I would take a solid 2 weeks off.

Now, yes, that detracts from momentum, but it was also really healthy for me to help my body recover for an extended period of time. So remember that taking breaks are important. Maybe that’s just taking a vacation, if the big goal that you’ve had in mind throughout this episode was a business; starting a business, or dedicating yourself to your current business. Taking a break, taking a vacation can be really, really good for you. So take breaks, they’re really healthy, but acknowledge that it does detract from momentum, and you may feel like you have to start with steps 1 through 3 again, on ways to get momentum started, but it will be easier again. Not all is lost. You can do it again.

Ok you guys. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode; this was, again, passion project of mine if you couldn’t tell. I’m very excited about this material. I would love to have your thoughts, so please leave a comment on my blog page, https://fedandfit.com with the show notes about today’s episode; I’d love to know your thoughts, and if you have anything else to add.

And if you enjoy the podcast, you could do me a solid by going onto iTunes and leaving a review. I read all those reviews and I really appreciate them. The more reviews that we have on the show, the more likely other folks are able to see it; it will show up in their feed. So thanks again for all of your support. I’ll talk about it shortly in the next couple of weeks with some special guests that are coming on, but I’ll be touring the country on a nationwide book tour, and I really, really hope to see you there. You can see the dates on my website right now, https://fedandfit.com/events. It’s on my main menu bar, you can find it right there, and be sure to RSVP so we know to expect you!

Thanks again for listening. We’ll be back again next week.