How many times have you said to yourself – if I could just get motivated I could lose weight, exercise more, go back to school, get out of debt or get a job I love?

Life would be great if we could just get motivated right?  Well the good news is motivation is internal.  And that’s the bad news too – nobody else can do it for you.  When you decide to commit to making yourself Priority 1 and taking ownership of your self-care, happiness and success you become responsible for the decisions you make.  And that’s where a lot of us slide down that slippery slope because our BS gets in the way.  Our belief systems I mean. 

There are 3 secrets to the art of motivation. 

1. You must BELIEVE that what you do matters. 
2. You must TRUST that after you decide to do something it will happen
3. You must COMMIT to stay with it and not give up until you get your result.

For many years I had no trouble getting motivated to start something.  I got a bright idea and excitement set right in.  I made big plans.  But soon after the initial rush began to fade, so did my commitment.  The minute I began to doubt that I could make the changes I wanted to make, I started down that slippery slope.  I lost confidence in myself and my desire to stick with it.  My motivation mojo evaporated into thin air.

Life happens when you’re making other plans and the demands on us can make it seem almost impossible to find a way to change your habits.  When you’re overburdened and overwhelmed, how do you find the motivation to take care of the dishes much less yourself?  

That’s why I’m a believer in NOT adding another goal to an already full plate.

You start by looking at your “BS” – and how those belief systems are holding you back from what you want.  They’re barriers to creating your soul-inspired life.  They manifest as fear of success, feeling alone, feeling guilty or ashamed, low self-esteem, lack of focus or fear of failure.  And they can drag us into a downward motivational spiral. 

But even that’s not the whole story.  Underneath that BS is the BIG BS that’s often the root of many of the others.  It’s about self love.  It’s not ACCEPTING and LOVING yourself right where you are.  When your inner critic starts in on you, do you minimize the importance of who you are and what you came here to do?  Do you feel that what you do doesn’t matter or won’t change anything?  That’s what will knock motivation right out of you.  It will defeat your spirit before you even start. 

Grab a piece of paper and write out something you’d like to motivate yourself to do.  Then write down all the barriers to achieving that goal.  Can you see how motivation can’t help you until you bust through those barriers?  You just keep hitting the wall until you know how to get through it.

The truth is, nothing happens until something moves, as Einstein sagely observed. Motivated people aren’t any different from you – they are successful because they believe in themselves – trust in the process – and commit to just do it – even if they don’t want to.

Please believe that everything you do matters.  You matter.  Believe you deserve to have health, energy, and abundance in every area of your life!  Your future is not somewhere beyond you – it is inside you!  Decide what it is you truly want to do for you – create a plan and then take little actions every day.  Accept yourself right where you are and begin to believe – trust – and commit to loving yourself enough to live the life of an on-fire fitchick!

Self-care does not start, or end, with vacations. It’s the little, everyday and I mean – EVERY DAY steps you take to create health, wellness and balance in your life that give you the energy, confidence and enthusiasm to keep on keeping on.

What kinds of things should you think about when you start to make you Priority #1?

• How you eat is extremely important.  Food impacts how you feel, think and move through your day.
• Get in touch with your physical intelligence.  Create the body movement and exercise strategies that work for you!
• Getting enough REST is the single most important thing you can do for your body, mind and spirit.
• Live life lighter!  PLAY!  It’s not just for kids.  
• Sitting still.  Meditation and quiet reflection to disconnect your “constantly on” mind.
• Let go of your “BS”.  Your Belief Systems.  The old and negative programming and self-talk that’s kept you limited and stuck.  Open up to the opportunities and possibilities of who you are and what you can do.

Ask and you shall receive.  It’s not what happens to you that shapes your life, it’s how you interpret and evaluate those experiences.  The meaning you attach to an event or circumstance determines the decisions you make, the actions you take and ultimately – your destiny.

And decisions are nothing more than questions we ask and answer for ourselves.  So if you want to change the quality of your life, you need to change the questions you ask. If you ask yourself disempowering questions like “why does this happen to me?” and “what’s the use?” it depresses you and drains your energy.  If you focus on questions that make you feel overloaded and overwhelmed, you’ll keep yourself in a limited emotional state and that will prevent you from taking positive action.

Questions determine everything you do in your life, from your abilities to your relationships to your income.  What power could you unlease by asking some simple but powerful questions?  They are a magic tool that allows our minds to meet our wishes, they are the wake up call to our unlimited potential.

They’ll allow us to achieve our desires – but only if we present them in a specific and positive, well thought out request.  So rather than “why am I so depressed?” ask “What can I do to change my state and feel energy and lightness right now?”  Change your questions and you’ll change your state of mind and your circumstances!

1.  Create your own definition of personal success. Not what you do or what you have (or want to have) but what do you want personally?  Who do you want to become?  Once you’ve defined your personal vision, start living “as if” you are already there.

2. Discover your purpose.  We hear a lot about purpose, but getting deeply centered and knowing yours will inspire you tremendously.  The movers and shakers of our time have always been deeply connected to their purpose and energized by it.  What are your unique God given gifts and talents?  Your deepest passions and your strengths?  You are uniquely wired – there’s no one else like you.

3.  Love big, give big.  Make a commitment today to love those around you in a big way.  Maybe that means forgiving someone who drives you crazy!  Make a choice to invest in everyone whom God has brought into your life.  Every time I meet someone new I ask myself what possibilities exist to learn from this relationship, no matter how brief. Give from knowing you have a reservoir that is always filling – there’s more than enough.

4. Simplify one area of your life.  Delegate or delete an obligation, chore, task or project that’s draining your energy. Take time to find room to breathe physically and mentally.  The distraction of clutter in any form saps your strength and motivation.

5. Stop the bottom feeding mental habits.  They are self destructive and health destructive.  What I’m talking about is that when challenging situations or change comes at you, put your energy toward finding the best (and simplest) solution possible.   Resist the temptation to go to the dark side and ruminate about why this is happening, why it’s unfair, why you haven’t done it yet and other nasty bottom feeding habits like denial, total stress out, blowing up or heading for an emotional meal.

Messy living and work spaces lead to stressed out minds and that leads to toxic living (like overeating) which makes you toxic.  Ultimately not good “waist” management.  Cluttered house, cluttered body.  Make that connection and you’ll create a powerful why that will help you stay focused enough to make your home or office fit to live in.

Dr. Pamela Peake, author of Fit to Live , calls it the “Mouth-Mess” connection.  She discovered it while filming the National Body Challenge for Discovery Health TV.  Helping her clients become aware of how a toxic living space fosters toxic stress, overeating and unhealthy lifestyle habits also helped them recognize how clutter was literally sabotaging their survival.

I have seen clients wake up to taking better care of their health once they woke up to the weight of their clutter.  As they got fitter and had more energy, they created the time and energy to optimize their living space.   A crucial aspect to self-care is about creating a lighter home environment that supports a healthy lifestyle. 

A good book that illustrates this concept is Dan Ho’s Rescue from Domestic Perfection, which discusses the weight/clutter connection from his personal perspective. 

Bag the guilt and self-recrimination and walk into any place where clutter’s running the show and take charge.  Then feel the light.

Anthony Robbins, motivational coach and speaker, calls energy “the fuel of excellence.”  So it stands to reason that eliminating energy drains is a powerful way to renew motivation and focus  both emotionally and physically.    A life coach I once worked with told me she often focused the first 3 to 6 months of her work with a client specifically on helping them eliminate energy drains so they could attract better things into their lives.

It is truly amazing how much better you feel when you’ve cleared away something that’s been dragging you down.  The most obvious are unwanted clutter or removing the “irritants” that fill up our to do lists.  But there are other energy drains that have an emotional side to them and these are the kind that make you feel stressed, anxious and overwhelmed.  They might take the form of a phone call or conversation you need to have with someone that you’ve been putting off, or a commitment you made that you now regret.  You might be doing something at work that really should be delegated to someone else or pursuing a goal or project that is no longer in line with your current life priorities or vision.

Sometimes things we hang onto from the past can steal our energy and actually prevent us from moving forward in a more exciting or fulfilling life direction.  When we finally are able to handle these energy drains or let go of them that action has a dramatic and immediate positive effect on us.  You feel better mentally and physically and then you can make room for much more attractive things to come on in.

Here’s an inspired action suggestion – this week scan your environment for 3 energy drains that have emotional strings attached.  Consider everything from clutter to work to relationship or health issues.  Schedule some time to handle the 3 drains you’ve chosen.  Break the tasks down into baby steps and ask for support if you need help.  Then build in a reward for yourself that will help keep you motivated to continue eliminating the what’s draining you.

New in September – Simple, sustainable solutions for your life by design – My Personal Blueprint Success Circle Coaching Club (a membership and forum site) is coming in September.  I’m looking forward to helping you create your own “Plan ME”  with health, organization and lifestyle strategies for your most important asset  – you.

We live in a fast moving world.  It’s drive thru this, instant that, multi tasking, driving while talking on your phone, drinking coffee and putting on makeup in the rear view mirror. 

 One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned was how to get more by doing less.

 While this may not make a lot of sense on the face of it, it’s rock solid fact.

To get more of the health, wealth, clarity, focus, confidence, personal power – fill in the blank with your dream - you have to do less. 

We (myself included!) make change difficult if not impossible, by trying to change too many things at once. We try to overhaul our eating and exercise habits, organize our homes, paper, priorities, finances, grow a business or career – all at once – not realizing that each of those changes is probably made up of 10-20 smaller behaviors that all require a shift. 

That’s a set up for failure.

Bob Green, personal trainer and Oprah’s fitness coach said it best. “The fast and furious approach is also the fastest route to failure. Human beings don’t respond well to sudden changes. However your body and your mind have a powerful ability to adapt to change when it comes at you in measured amounts.” 

Read that again: Measured amounts.  Baby steps. 

But we’re impatient. We want everything now – or better yet, yesterday.  For instance, when I work with clients who are interested in changing their fitness habits and I tell them that on the plan we don’t start that portion until the 3^rd or 4^th sessions – they’ll often resist. They want to get going right away – why wait, right?

That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Why not jump right in and start working out, adopting new eating habits and getting right to their desired goal?

Because it doesn’t work.  

Adding another layer to an already full plate is the problem! It’s what we all try to do – not realizing that until we create space for the changes we want to make the changes themselves WON’T stick and we wind up frustrated and discouraged when the first promise to ourselves is broken. Of course, you COULD change more than one thing at once, but not for long, and never for long enough to see lasting, sustainable improvement – which is what you really want, isn’t it?

Accept the fact that you can only change one behavior at a time, and you will succeed. Try to change more than one thing at a time, and you will fail. It’s really that simple.

The Japanese word “kaizen” is the process of making simple, small improvements consistently that over time will change your life. It’s a powerful yet simple way to transform every area of your personal and professional life. It’s how you create a support system that automatically aligns you with your goals and makes creating “I-Space” natural and organic.

The beliefs that we hold in our lives and in the work we do control all of our decisions, and therefore our future. One of the most positive “BS” (belief systems) we can adopt is that in order to succeed and be happy we have to be constantly improving, growing and expanding.

The Japanese understand this principle well. They understand that tiny improvements made daily begin to create quantum results at a level that most people can’t imagine. They have a saying “If a man has not been seen for 3 days, his friends should take a good look at him and see what changes have befallen him.” Interestingly, we have no English equivalent for the word “kaizen.”

This simple organizing principle can make a huge impact in your life. Most of us never feel secure or happy for long because we are always worried about losing something – our jobs, our health, finances – ourselves! The only way to truly be at ease comes from knowing that every day you’re a commitment to moving forward in your life in some way. You’re not tolerating or maintaining – you’re improving. It doesn’t become overwhelming because those improvements are small. Baby steps. But very powerful. Because I’m blessed (and cursed) with a curious nature, I realized I’ve been doing this naturally most of my life and never realized there was a name for it.

Remember the saying “A year from now you will have wished you started today?” Small improvements are believable and therefore achieveable (Anthony Robbins). It’s always your “BS” that will motivate you – either toward what you want or away from it.

Take a really good look around your home (and your office – you spend a lot of time there too!). Could you honestly say this is a special place that inspires you at the soul and spirit level? Is it a place of beauty that expresses your authentic self at its best? I can hear some of you moaning as you think about how challenging it can be just to find a clear path to walk through a room much less enjoy it on a soulfully.

And possibly you don’t think – in your natural mind – that it’s even really all that important. Well, I’m here to tell you that it is critically important. Feeding your soul is a critical self care skill and an integral part of creating the on-fire life of your dreams you crave inside.

It’s important to remember that even just a little beautification goes a long way. Small changes to any room can make a big difference. This spring I took stock of my townhome – the living and dining area to be exact and noticed that it was feeling a little spare to me. After taking care of my mother for the last 2 months of her life, and then clearing out her estate to get her home ready for sale, I was in a space emotionally and physically that needed to be clear of “stuff.” I deliberately scaled down my environment as a result. By summer I was feeling differently and after a trip East to visit my sister and bringing home a few things of my mom’s she had saved for me I wanted to “feather my nest” a bit.

Now I wake on a breezy morning to the sound of the wind chimes that hung just above the porch of our summer home in Maine for almost 20 years. I read by the light of the antique pottery jar from Peru that was turned into a lamp and that caught my mom’s eye as it sat in the window of a shop on Cape Cod. That lamp sitting on the table is so much more soul-nurturing than a pile of unread magazines or papers in the same space.

Don’t underestimate the powerful effect your environment has on you and your self-care. I’ve been a domestic diva for over 30 years, and anyone who knows me will tell you that the first thing I do when I move somewhere (including a hotel room!) is make it my own space.

This week give yourself permission to do something special that will help you create soul-inspired space in your home. Maybe you’ve been meaning to get some new towels to replace those frayed, bleach stained ones. Or hang some pictures you’ve been meaning to put up. Add some feathers to your nest and give yourself a comfortable place to relax and rest.

1) Choose one area or room in your home.
2) Clean it thoroughly and declutter if necessary.
3) Assess the space and determine if there’s anything you need to add (lighting, accessories).
4) Rearrange or remove things if necessary. Add one thing this week.

When you simplify your life you shift your energy and when your energy shifts you can change your world. Making small changes over time can have a huge impact on the quality of your life. My simple coaching program can help you create your own life by design – with you as the focal point – one step at a time.

Whenever I do personal training work with a client, I pay particular attention to the way they carry their body. For many of us (myself included) you can see the how we compartmentalize our mind and body just by the way we hold ourselves. Some of us tend toward the rounded shoulder slump. Others fold in on themselves with the “Eeyore” posture. The mental attitude is almost always reflected in how the body moves.

There’s actual intelligent life below your neck if you choose to look for it. And when you tap into inhabiting your body in a new way you find out surprising things. For instance, have you ever tried a form of movement you thought was beyond you (like interpretive dance or martial arts) and discovered that when you weren’t preoccupied with the static external appraisal of yourself you experienced an amazing internal joy at just moving through space? That kind of movement awakens your personal inner athlete. Maybe not the one who wants to run a marathon or rappelle a rock wall – but the one who craves expression through movement.
I don’t believe it’s possible to educate your bind and leave your body out of it – they are one. (That might have something to do with the fact that I’m a distinctly “gross motor” gal.) But if mental intelligence is our ability to acquire and apply knowledge from our mind, then physical intelligence is our body’s ability to look at our physical and emotional landscape and then apply its knowledge (in the form of strength, timing, flexibility and power) to respond. That’s a pretty cool message if we’ll take time to listen to it.

Physical intelligence will spill over into other areas of your life too – like your relationships and your work. When you push yourself to take flight, to move, it will encourage you to push past your comfort zone, try a new approach, get up when you fall.
You develop new instincts and new ways of looking at the world and at yourself. Instead of being preoccupied with your body type and your weight, believe that you are more than the sum of your parts. Begin to move and get in touch with your body – she has a few pretty amazing things to teach you.