What keeps you motivated?
Renata Lima, MD, MSc
Passionate clinical and medical leader, communicator, and team builder who is dedicated to reimagining healthcare and accelerating innovation for a healthier world. | Inspiring Women as a Mentor
I went to bed yesterday with my kung fu master words hammering in my head:
“A Kung Fu training, like many things in life, is made up of 3 steps.
?*Onset*: Indisposition to training, laziness
?*Middle*: Pain, suffering, slow death
?*End*: Serotonin, pleasure, physical/emotional reward, motivation/willpower?Realize that motivation shows up only at the end. We won't always be motivated to start a workout, so kung fu comes to make you disciplined. The more dedication and discipline you have, the more results you will see” (Nicollas Conti).
It’s not only about the martial art of kung fu because we all know that it is easy to keep moving when we are highly motivated, but when our motivation is low? We must keep moving and find a way to summon up some motivation. Perhaps you can break your tasks to make them easier or look inside you and boost your motivation. The last one is not the easiest, and it will require more discipline because we know, even unconscious, to make it work, it needs to be rewarding or emotionally satisfying to keep boosting your motivation.?
The truth is we all oscillate between moments when we are highly motivated, and moments we will need to do “extra work”. It’s the circle of life. We all have ups and downs, and the most important thing is to breathe and look inside you to find your inner strength. Don’t look at the others. Focus only on where you want to go or achieve.
There is no magic recipe. To keep yourself motivated is hard work because, as my master said at the beginning, it is not only psychological; it is also biochemical (remember the serotonin? And dopamin?). When we boost the levels of this neurotransmitter in our brains will give us drive and determination.
Another way to help you find motivation efficiently is by practicing exercises, meditating, breaking your goal into small goals, accepting challenges, enjoying your journey, and finding your inner peace.
I work hard to keep myself moving, but of course, I do have bad days. I always was very persevering, but my kung fu, tai chi and yoga practices play an important role in my life. As my masters says: “ kung fu means hard work.” It’s what I am trying to keep doing every day in my life: hard work.
And you? What do you do to keep you motivated?
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2 年The big question for me is, what to do when I’ve lost my momentum for a day (or two, or three)? I’ve learned that the longer I wait to break through the inertia, the longer it takes for me to build up any momentum. It’s Newton’s first law of motion: a body at rest tends to stay at rest.??