"Sarah, how are you so motivated?"
“Sarah, how are you so motivated?”
People ask me all the time, how am I so motivated? To exercise, meditate, blog, show up, run my business etc. etc!
I’ve been sharing my goals really publicly recently. And it is SCARY. I’d rather just write them down in my journal and not tell anyone about them until they’re a done deal. But unfortunately, I don’t have the motivation for that.
Which is why I discovered that declaring my actions publicly is THE key to staying motivated.
Blogging? I’ve been intending to blog for 3 whole years and haven’t been doing it at all. I’m dead serious, I bought this domain in 2016.
But a week ago, I publicly declared that I will show up online (including blogging) every single day for TWO WHOLE YEARS. I’m 7 days in and totally afraid (and that’s the whole point) but I’m even more inspired. A challenge like this gets me so. damn. excited! This is the first time EVER that I’ve stuck with it properly.
I’m writing this at 12.25am, when I should be in bed. But I won’t go to sleep without publishing a blog post.
The same goes for mediation. The first time I meditated I was 12, which means I’ve been meditating on and off for 11 years. But this year I decided I really wanted to make it a habit, so I decided - and publicly declared - I would meditate every single day for a year.
Why isn’t it enough to just make the decision privately?
When I was 16 I wanted to a DJ. Not just any DJ, I wanted to be the world’s first ultra successful female DJ. Like, as successful as Avicii or Calvin Harris (Instead of putting up posters of celebrities, I had DJ logos on my bedroom walls). I thought about it constantly. I dreamed about DJing at Tomorrowland. But I never told anyone. So I never took any action. I never even learned to spin decks.
We are too comfortable letting ourselves down.
But no one wants to look foolish or stupid in front of other people.
Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your online followers. Tell your teachers, your mentors, your boss.
Sing it from the ROOFTOPS!
HERE’S AN IMPORTANT BIT: don’t just declare the end result, the goal, declare the daily ACTION you will take.
e.g. “I will win an Oscar” isn’t enough to declare. Because you’ve got YEARS to pull that off. You might think people have forgotten, and give up. You need to say “I will act out a scene from Shakespeare every single day.” Because suddenly you can’t hide behind time and the hope of tomorrow.
Believe me, if you do this, motivation won’t be a problem anymore. You won’t want to have to tell people you gave up on my dreams because you got tired or bored or lazy. You’ll be so worried about embarrassing yourself, you will do whatever it takes to stick to your declaration.
Declare your actions publicly and you’ll have your motivation sorted.
