8 Scientifically Proven Ways To Stay Motivated BEFORE You Get Off Track (When Things Get Tough)

been an incredible year so far. We've had Dan Buttner, the expert behind the Blue Zones. If you didn't catch the Netflix documentary, make sure you listen to the episode. If you did watch the documentary, listen to the episode as well. It will blow your mind as to how people in the Blue Zones live till over a hundred of the habits, the practices, the diets. It is really really fantastic information. We've also had the one and only

Michelle Obama on the podcast. Thank you for all the love, all the reviews, all the posts and stories about that episode. And I'm so glad that you loved my goal setting method As my weekly workshop, Today's weekly workshop is for all of you who already know that it's going to be hard to maintain motivation this year. Maybe you've already slipped up. Maybe you've already tripped up, Maybe you haven't,

but you've got close, and you know that feeling. You've started to recognize that there is always a challenge, that there's always something, some resistance, that you're trying to make sure it doesn't get the better of you. How many of you have already been challenged, how many of you have been pushed? How many of you been under pressure to break your goal, to move away, to lose motivation.

Now here's the thing. This episode is for you. Whether you've stayed on track so far or whether you've fallen off, This episode is for you. If you want to stay on track, this is going to give you these scientifically proven methods to boost your motivation and stay motivated. And if you're someone who's fallen off or scared you're about to, this is going to be the episode that's going to

get you back up there, back on track. This year is all about making sure that we have you on track, on purpose for as long as you want to be, however you want to be at the same time as giving you the space to rest, recover, and rejuvenate. Now I'm going to be giving you a lot of great tips today, so make sure that you take screenshots. Make sure that you take notes if you are able to, if you're walking, or you're at the gym, or you're cooking.

Thank you so much for choosing on purpose. If you're driving, to step number one. To stay motivated, especially when it feels like you're running out something known as cognitive restructuring. This is a technique that's often used in both coaching and therapy, and there are four stages of cognitive restructuring. You have awareness, reappraisal, adoption, and evaluation. I'll repeat those. The four stages of cognitive restructuring are awareness, reappraisal, adoption,

and evaluation. Now, let me walk you through when you would use this. Imagine you started the years saying I'm going to go to the gym five days a week, or maybe you've promised to yourself that you won't be eating sugar retreats in the evening, whatever commitment, whatever goal that you've made for yourself, whatever resolution that you've set. Now let's say it's been a stressful week, work piled up maybe you had a slight conflict with your partner.

Maybe you and your friends aren't seeing eye to eye right now. Right there's some stress that's happened. Maybe there's some family thing going on right now, Right now, you're not in a long going jay, how do you know, Well, it's happening to all of us. You're not alone, right So something like that's come in and all of a sudden, you're sitting there and you're thinking to yourself, I don't know if I can be bothered to go to the

gym tomorrow. You know what, I just feel like I need to have a tub of ice cream right now. Whatever it may be for you, You go and grab that tub of ice cream. You wake up the next morning, you miss going to the gym, You press snooze on the alarm clock, you miss the time that you were meant to get up, you're running late to work. What's the thought that goes through your head? I messed up. I wish I didn't eat ice cream. I wish I didn't miss my workout. I've fallen off. That's it, it's

all over. I've already messed it up. I failed. I'm gonna have to wait till next month, have to wait till next year. Right, we have all these really irrational thoughts, and I'm sure you've had some of these before, or maybe you're having them right now where you're saying, it's only the second week and I've already fallen off. Right, I've already found it difficult. I've already broken my promise

to myself. This is where cognitive restructuring comes in. So what usually happens to us is that idea perpetuates, that idea persists, and then that idea becomes our reality, a messed up. There's no point anymore. I've fallen off, I've broken it, and then we start that new pattern eating ice cream, missing your workout, missing the alarm, for example. In cognitive restructuring, we first become aware of that dialogue

and how that dialogue has changed. We do a reappraisal, we look at it, we evaluate it, we try and understand where it's coming from, and we actually decide and say to ourselves, actually, I'm going to choose a different thought process. I needed that ice from that night, I needed to miss a workout, I needed some time for recovery. I'm going to be so excited and enthusiastic to get back on tomorrow because I had a well deserved break. You're not telling yourself that you made the right decision.

Everything's perfect, everything's wonderful. What you're saying is you're trying to frame or reframe the situation that you went through in a way that makes it a healthier belief. Believing that you have messed up and failed is not going to get you back on track, but restructuring and reframing it as a recognition of Hey, I was stressed. I recognized that because I was stressed, I needed different things. But now I'm really excited to get back on And I often say this to people that you have to

program your mind the night before. Right, you set your alarm the night before so that it rings the next morning. We have to code our brain. We have to reframe our cognitive structure the night before so that we wake up with that code. It's literally like coding. You're coding your mind to say I will wake up tomorrow morning feeling refreshed, calm, and energized. Coding our mind saying I will be excited to work out, to choose healthy foods, whatever it is for you. Right, So, I want you

to give that a go. And the best way to do this is by journaling. Now you can voice journal, audio journal, or write journal, whichever one works for you. But it's so powerful. Try it out now. The second principle, second step that I want to share with you is less of a science one but more of a psychology call one. Follow all the right accounts, link to your goal, and like all their posts. I want you to come up with a list of ten accounts to do with

what you're trying to build. Are you trying to build a stronger mindset? Are you trying to build a stronger body? Are you trying to build a stronger emotional connection? I want you to find the top ten social media pages. Now, a lot of people will say, don't use social media, get off social media. Now, we all know, A. That's really hard. B. It can be extremely challenging to live your year like that. But here's a way we can

actually use social media to our advantage. Find those pages on TikTok or Instagram, whatever you use, turning it on its head, and I want you to like the most recent posts, and I want you to comment on the recent posts. Here's what that's going to do. That's going to tell the algorithm to show more of those posts to you. Now, every time you're on social media, you're going to more mindset advice, You're going to get more health and wellness advice, You're going to get more advice

on whatever it is that you're trying to build. Maybe it's creativity. I do this all the time, and I find then that whenever I go on to social media, even if I go on to scroll, or if I'm going to see your comments and reply or whatever it may be, I start to see the things I really want to see. But it takes the act of saying, what are the ten accounts, what are the last three posts? Let me like and comment on them as well. Right, So ten accounts, three posts to like and comment on.

If you do that simple act, you will start to see the algorithm show you more of that type of content. And this is really important because we've heard that famous saying so many times that you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with, And I would argue you become the average of the five

accounts you spend the most time on. And so our lives have expanded away from individual people to the accounts the pages that we follow, and so I want you to do that consciously because chances are unless you've promised yourself to be of social media, which is amazing if you have, but if you're still using social media, this is a great way of actually using it to your advantage. Now, number three is something that a lot of you may do, but some of us don't appreciate just how powerful it

can actually be. When you're trying to do something three times a week, five days a week. Maybe you're doing something seven days a week. Maybe you've seen this in the movies, maybe you've seen your friend do it. It is so important to tick off the day. Some people cross it off as a ticket off. Crosses make you feel like something bad. Right, We've been programmed to believe that a cross is negative. Right, when you get across on a test, it's the wrong answer. Put a tick

every single day. It sounds like a really small, minor thing, but the simple act of putting a tick on a day when you've completed something, it gives you that sense. Now we've been programmed like this. Right when you were young, you'd get a gold star. We don't have that anymore. So if we just say yeah, I went to the gym today, cool, it doesn't give us that sense of completion.

Completion is a really important metric to be measured. See, we only measure success, right, we only measure the result. But completion is so so valuable to recognize, and the only person that knows you completed it is you. Like someone may see a difference in your appearance, someone may notice a difference in how you're living your life, but you know when you completed something, and it's what you completed that leads to the result that you deeply desire.

So I really want you to keep a calendar and physically take it off, not on your phone. I want you to have the physical calendar where when you've been to the gym three times a week, that day you finish your put a tick on that day, put a tick on the next day, and keep it in front of you. Because every time you see more and more ticks on that day, guess what, it will motivate you. Even if you missed one and you have two ticks that week, that's still going to motivate you the next time.

The more you put crosses, the more you don't have this visible you start going, oh, I missed the last two days, so it doesn't matter about today. Whereas when you look at it and you went, oh, my gosh, two days ago, I actually went and guess what, I went three days in a row before that. That's motivating, right,

That's why we do it. This isn't about accounting, right, It's not just keeping keeping account it's actually psychologically proven that that feeling of I've done it, you know, looking at the month and saying, Wow, this month, I actually went fifteen times, rather than oh, this month, I think I missed a lot of sessions. Right. No, it's that difference in cognitive restructuring. The most healthiest, wealthiest, and wisest people are looking at the other side. This isn't just

half class fall. It's actually taking a moment to acknowledge and recognize the number of days you've completed. If you look at all the apps you use, they all use this as gamification. It will tell you that you've worked out three days in a row. It will tell you that you have completed this mindfulness practice seven days in a row, whatever it may be. Because we know or

the apps know that, psychologically, you feel more motivated. Please please, please do this physically, get out of calendar, print it out for the month, buy one of your favorite ones, right, and put a tick, a green, a big green tick on each one. You deserve it. This is about valuing yourself, valuing the commitment you've made, and valuing the completion and the process as much as you value the result, because otherwise, if we keep waiting for the result to value ourselves

will stop the process. And that's what happens to ninety nine percent of people. We're waiting so much for the result that we lose faith in the process. Right, We're yearning so badly for the result that we lose faith in the process. Now, number four, this is the biggest one that has made a huge difference in my life. Every time you lose motivation. Here are the three people you need in your life. You need one person to call when you fall off. That's the person you complain to,

you vent to, you share your struggle with. You need one person to call who helps you get back on. You need that one person who's going to push you and challenge you. Right, the first one person might be caring, the second one's going to challenge you. And then the third person you need is the person you do it with. Because guess what, when we want motivation, we have to make motivation social. If your motivation is only based on

your own mind, it may let you down. But when your motivation is based on it being more social, competitive, or collaborative, amazing things are possible. I have a friend where we defined our three values of our friendship as being fitness, fun, and friendship. Right, we wanted everything we did all around to be based on fitness and fun, So we found being competitive and collaborative was a huge

way of staying motivated towards our goals. So one person to call when you fall off, one person of quality who gets you back on, and then one person to actually do the activity with. These are the three most important people in your motivation circle. Think about it right now. Who's the person that you call when things are not going right. Who's the person that you call that you know is going to tell you the truth even if you don't want to hear it. That person's really important.

Often we think the person that's important is just the person who's going to tell us what we want to hear. The person who tells you what you need to hear is as important, if not more important, than the person who tells you what you want to hear, and then the person who doesn't just hear you out but actually says, Yeah, let's do it, let's get on with it, let's build Those are the three key people. Remember if you're losing motivation, make it more social, make it more competitive, or make

it more collaborative. Competition and collaboration are brilliant ways to get motivated. Gamify it right. Set a number. If you and your friends are collaborating about how many workouts can we go to together this week? That's where you grab motivation. A lot of us try and solve motivation as an individual thing. Motivation is so much more of a collective thing. I promise you Tip number five this actually transform my life. Listen to this carefully. The most important thing is how

you feel after you do something. We overvalue what we feel before something, and we undervalue what we feel after something. I'll give you an example. If I don't feel like working out before a workout, I will overvalue that and listen to it. But if I feel good after a workout, I will undervalue that and just move on. We have to shift that narrative when something goes well. When you complete something, not only do you want that green tick, you want to write about it. You want to talk

about it, you want to share it. Right, make a big deal about it. Be louder about your wins, because we've all experienced this. When we lose, we cry for a month, but when we win, we celebrate for a day. Right, how many times have you realize this? Right? Let me say that again. When we lose, we cry for a month. Right. If something goes wrong, we'll complain for a month. We'll you know, criticize for a month, we'll compare for a month. But when something goes right, we go, ah, yeah, I

went to the gym three times this week. No big deal? Right, We keep saying no big deal, But it is a big deal. Make a big deal out of it. And I'll tell you why. This isn't about ego, this isn't about pride. The reason to make a big deal about your wins and completion is you are convincing your brain of this new narrative that I really like this, this

is really good for me. It makes me feel good. Right, And in our modesty or our false humility, we make it out like it's no big deal, which means our brain goes, yeah, no, well, working out no big deal. But guess what, eating that type of ice cream feels really really good. So reward yourself. Find a way to reward yourself. And one of the best ways of rewarding yourself is telling someone who cares about you, this amazing achievement you made this week. A reward isn't a physical thing,

it's not a food. It's actually sharing how you won, what you did, expressing how you broke through it, because that gives you more motivation. In fact, a recent study found that immediate rewards you give yourself, especially in the first stages of changing your behavior while it's becoming a habit,

can boost intrinsic motivation more than delayed rewards. In the study, when people were asked to complete a task, there was a twenty percent increase in motivation amongst those participants who received an immediate bonus compared to those who receive nothing. And that is why it's so important that as soon as you finish an activity that you're proud of, something you are struggling to do, calt someone up tell them about it. It's not about ego, it's not about showing off.

It's not about pride. It's about convincing and reframing your cognitive ability to see it as a positive, to see it as powerful. Step number six. One of the ways for me, one of the reasons why I lose motivation sometimes is because I feel like I'm not achieving anything. It's almost like I did the laundry, I did the groceries, I did the dishes, I got lots of stuff done, but I didn't do the one thing I wanted to do. I uncovered this a few years ago, and it totally

totally transformed my life. I call it effective versus efficient days. Certain days in my life are efficient. It means I've got lots of stuff done, lots of small things, the groceries, the dishes, my accounting, right, whatever, it is, all the stuff, all their efficiency stuff. And then there are some days that are effective where I maybe only got one thing done, or an effective week where I only achieved one thing,

but it's really big for me. And sometimes what I find is we end up filling our life with lots of efficient days, but we don't have many effective weeks or months, And it's the effective weeks that make us feel motivated. Right, you have a big breakthrough, you have a creative outburst, you have an expression that brings you to life. I want you to plan to have an effective day or an effective week where you're focused on the hardest thing, the most important thing, the thing that

you keep putting off. Right. I have a friend who's always putting off the hard stuff and keeps focusing on the easy stuff. But it's the hard stuff that's going to bring motivation. And in order to do this, you have to sign a contract with yourself. Signing a contract with yourself is a brilliant way to make yourself feel committed. Right,

It's the act of commitment, the act of intention. In Sanskrit, it's called sun kulpa san ka lpa that there has to be a contract, a commitment with oneself and intention with oneself. When we're serious about something, we have a contract. Right, when we're not serious about something, we don't have a contract. Keeping a contract to yourself, a commitment to yourself is a really powerful step. Now, this next one's huge because I find that a lot of our wellness habits are

connected to this one. So if you had working out, changing your food patterns connected to what you want to stay motivated around. I was looking at the top five New Years resolutions improving fitness, improving finances, improving mental health, losing weight, and improving diet. I'm going to share with you one that affects all of those. There one habit that affects every single one of those. Can you guess

what it is? Sleep? A recent study shows that a reduction in sleep of thirty three percent led to increased hunger and food cravings the next day in study participants. The researchers suggested that sleep deptation activates food related reward regions in the brain, leading to more hunger. Lack of sleep can cause an increase in the production of the hunger hormone and a decrease in the appetite suppressing hormone leptin. So so much of our fitness and our wellness is

based on the quality of our sleep. So if you're trying to say, Jay, you know I'm struggling with motivation. I don't know how to find it again? Where do I start? Start with your sleep? Getting quality sleep will naturally positively impact every other habit, your workouts, You'll have more energy, your foods, you will have the right amount of craving. Your mental health, of course, will greatly improve through quality sleep. Sleep is the one to start with.

If you've been struggling for motivation, start with changing your sleep. A lot of us are trying to change everything else, right, We're trying to change all the harder stuff, which if sleep doesn't shift as a foundation, it's much harder. I'm not saying it's not possible, it can just be a lot harder. And I want to end with this last scientifically proven method to boost your motivation, especially when it's hard.

Is a lot of us feel like we have to work out for an hour a day, we have to meditate for twenty minutes twice a day, we have to journal for half an hour a day, and all of a sudden, you're looking at a morning routine of three hours. Now, majority of us can't do that, right, That's just not realistic.

It's not possible for most of us. So I want to give you a twenty minute routine ten seven three ten minute workout, seven minute meditation, three minutes journaling ten seven to three ten minutes workout, seven minute meditation, three minutes of journaling, study show and I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Jay, a ten minute workout is going to do nothing. What am I going to achieve in a

ten minute workout? Seven minute meditation, three minutes journal? We'll listen to This study show that exercising for just ten minutes can boost your physical fitness, energy, and mood. In fact, there's a lot of research to suggest short workouts. A recent study found that taking an eleven minute daily walk can reduce your risk of disease and early death. Another recent study showed that exercise snacks short bouts of exercise,

not things you can eat. By the way, exercise snacks as in a break or a snack of an exercise, can be an effective way to boost your fitness level. One study showed that a ten minute burst of activity can boost your brain power, and another study found that those who exercised for ten minutes with one minute of high intensity intervals saw the same improvement in insulin sensitivity and other markers of cardiometabolic health as those who exercised

at a moderate pace for forty five minutes straight. Ten minutes exercise with one minute of high intensity intervals is having the same impact at forty five minutes of a moderate pace it's incredible. Please do not underestimate the principal ten seven to three ten minute workout, seven minutes of meditation, three minutes of journaling. That is a twenty minute morning routine to get your motivation back. I'm not telling you

to not only work out for ten minutes. I'm saying that this is what's needed when you're struggling with motivation and you're thinking, I can't get to the gym for an hour, I can't meditate for twenty minutes, I can't journal for half an hour. Ten seven three, this is the episode that's going to boost your motivation get you back on track. All I want you to do is figure out which one of these steps is the one

that's going to get you back on there. And I know it's early on in the year, but I wanted to give you this insight now so that you can be prepared because eighty percent of people are going to drop off by the end of January. I told you that last time, and I don't want you to be one of those people. I want you to be one of the twenty percent that breaks through and actually exceeds your expectations. And together we're going to do that on

on Purpose. Thanks for joining me for this weekly workshop. I will see you again at the next episode. Makes you subscribe, makes you download the latest episode. It doesn't auto download anymore. Make sure that you follow and leave a review. I'll see you very soon. Thanks for joining on Purpose, Wishing you a happier, healthier, and more healed. Twenty twenty four. If you love this episode, you'll enjoy my interview with doctor Julie Smith on unblocking negative emotions

and how to embrace difficult feelings. You've just got to be motivated every day, and if you're not, then what are you doing? And actually humans don't work that way. Motivation. You have to treat it like any other emotion. Some days it will be there, some days it won't