Get Off the Couch! Three Simple Tips to Find Motivation

 I know what I need to do, but I find that I don't have the motivation to get up and do what I need to do to take care of me.  How do I make myself get up and get moving?

I was presented with this question multiple times this past week.  It's a great question!  We often do know the healthy choices we can make - step outside for a walk, cook a meal instead of ordering pizza, go to the support group meeting, look up a mindfulness practice on-line and do it - but where we get stuck is following through and actually doing it.  We're literally stuck sitting on the couch because we stopped moving and now we're too tired.  The self-induced pressure of completing our long To Do list is so heavy.  We're too overwhelmed to take action.  We just don't want to do it.  

Here are three simple things that I do when I'm lacking the motivation to get up and take action on that healthy choice.  

1) Countdown - Sometimes I start at 10.  Sometimes I start at 3.  Out loud I countdown to GO!  It may be a barely audible whisper.  I may shout it at the top of my lungs.  Setting the immediate goal that I'm going to get up at "GO" does the trick when I am lacking ambition.

GO!

2) Play a Pump-Up Song - Putting on a song that I know will inspire me, that will get my foot tapping and my hips shaking or that I can sing along to will fill me with energy.  Remember Newton's Law?  An object in motion stays in motion.  Once I'm moving it's very easy to keep moving and start that healthy activity.

3) Repeat my WHY - Why am I doing this?  Why is being healthy important to me?  The other day I pulled up to my house after work.  I had one hour before an appointment.  On one hand this was the perfect time to fit in a walk.  On the other hand it was the perfect time for a quick power nap.  Honestly, either of those would have been a healthy choice, but on that day the walk was the better choice for me. I found myself sitting in my car struggling to find the energy to even open the door.  As the debate battled in my mind, I thought of WHY I continue to push myself to move.  I keep myself moving to keep my joints moving (gotta love arthritis!).  I keep myself moving so that I can continue to take care of my family.  I started repeating "For my joints! For my family!" and after a few minutes I got out of the car, went inside, changed my clothes and headed out for a walk. 

It's so easy to get stuck.  Stuck in that moment where you know what the healthy choice is but it feels much easier to not make it. It's in those moments that I encourage you to give these simple tips a try.  They will kick your motivation in gear!  

One Fruit One Veggie Challenge

Here is a simple, low-cost Wellness Event you can host at work.

March is National Nutrition Month.  In honor of National Nutrition Month, the Workplace Wellness Team that I'm part of at work is hosting a One Fruit One Veggie Challenge.  It's simple, eat one fruit and one vegetable every day, mark it off on the Challenge Card (see example below) and turn it in at the end of the month to be entered in a prize drawing.  Everyone gets three passes for the month - no one is perfect!  The prizes that you use don't have to be expensive.  We often use Paid Time Off (PTO) as a prize.  For example, 1 or 2 hours if you complete the challenge or we will draw a name from everyone who completed the challenge for a larger amount of PTO such as 4 or 8 hours.  We've also given wellness focused items out as raffle prizes - a water bottle, yoga mat or journal.   

This challenge is completed using the honor system.  If you say you completed it, we are going to believe you.  

You could also do this Challenge on your own or with your family.  Don't forget to include some type of celebration for completing the challenge.  The celebration is an important aspect of goal setting.  It motivates you to keep moving forward on your health journey!

For some, this may seem like a simple challenge.  For others, fruits and vegetables are not a routine part of their eating.  I recently took snacks to the Community Group that my husband and I are a part of through our church.  Since I have recently had to adopt an anti-inflammatory eating style, I took oranges as well as cookies.  I have to confess that I was shocked at how many people commented that they could not remember the last time they ate a piece of fresh fruit.  The other surprising thing was that the oranges were gone long before the cookies.  That showed me that if given the opportunity, people will enjoy the fruits and vegetables.  This wellness activity presents that opportunity in the form of a healthy challenge that won't break your wellness budget!  

Being a Caring Co-Worker

This month I have the pleasure of being the featured staff member for Community LIFE's Supportive Services Newsletter.  I've been working with our staff to educate them about and give them opportunities to practice self-care during this time of living and working through COVID-19.  It wasn't until listening to an episode of Brene Brown's dare to lead podcast that I was reminded of the importance of also caring for our Teammates.  Here is the article that I wrote for the newsletter focusing on caring for our Team.

Connecting with and Caring for Your Team

“The cure for burnout isn’t and can’t be self-care.  It has to be all of us caring for each other.”

~ Emily & Amelia Nagoski ~

dare to lead podcast with Brene Brown

I have spent a lot of time over the past several months talking about self-care – taking care of you so that you can take care of others.  In my mind, I defined others as our families and Participants.  However, I now realize that there is another group that needs to be included – our co-workers.  

I am reminded of a time several years ago when the East End Social Work department was going through a time of great transition.  I was extremely stressed.  My blood pressure was up.  I was not sleeping.  I even began breaking out into hives.  I was struggling.  Obviously, I made it through, but I honestly don’t think I would have without one thing . . . my Team.  

I would come back to the office to find treats on my desk.  Notes of encouragement showed up in my mailbox and tucked in my windshield wiper.  Team members would remind me to eat and fill my water bottle.   Hugs were limitless.  I felt uplifted.  I felt strengthened.  My Team carried me through that difficult time.

We have been physically separated from our co-workers for most of the past year.  Companies are starting to see the impact that this separation is having on peer relationships within the workplace which in turn is impacting job satisfaction and performance.  

As we enter this second year of life with COVID, we continue to live in a time of uncertainty.  We expect things to be changing on a regular basis yet change seems to happen unexpectedly.  Life at work . . . life at home . . . there is no escaping the madness.  Look around you.  Do you see co-workers who are feeling stressed?  Worn out?  Disconnected?  

We expect things to be changing on a regular basis
yet change seems to happen unexpectedly.

Rather than looking the other way, I encourage you to pause and think of what you can do to connect with your co-workers.  Need some ideas?  Here are four simple and safe ways that we can show each other that we care:

1. Leave a note – Whether it’s a post-it note stuck to a desk phone for a specific person to find or stuck to the coffee pot in the break room for everyone to see, write an inspirational quote or friendly greeting to brighten someone’s day.

2. Invite someone to lunch – Schedule a Teams call and eat lunch together.  Or pack a lunch and make plans to meet in a park or outside of the Center.

3. Embrace Spontaneous Contact – Team members are constantly coming and going from apartment buildings, homes and Centers.  Instead of waving and moving on, pause and ask your co-worker how she is doing.  If you are one of the first ones on a Teams’ meeting, start a conversation with your colleagues rather than hitting mute until the meeting starts.  Embrace those moments of being together when you have a little time to take the focus off work.

4. Send a Gratitude email –Let your co-workers know that you appreciate them.  What a great e-mail that would be to find amongst the hundred you get in a day!  

Connecting with a co-worker builds a caring work community.  A caring work community is a happier place to work for all of us.    

   

Plan Some Positive Anticipation

This week we enter what I consider to be the hardest period of the Holiday Blues – the Post-Holiday Blues.  Schedules go back to normal.  There’s nothing special on the calendar.  The weather is cold and dreary.  The sun is in a deep hibernation (at least here in Pittsburgh!).  Your holiday decorations have been put away or they’re still up because you don’t have the energy to take them down.  You feel bloated and lethargic after eating all of the holiday leftovers over the weekend.  Your Family, friends and clients seem a bit more needy because they too are feeling the post-holiday blues.  And to top it off you are in an office with little human contact or working from home with the people you’ve just spent the past two weeks (or ten months) with and even though you love them dearly you could really use a break.  (Just typing this is making me feel more blah!)

What might help is some Positive Anticipation.  Something to look forward to.  Something new!  Something exciting!

But we are still facing a global pandemic so what is that something new and exciting supposed to look like?  After accepting the fact that “new and exciting” in 2021 is not going to look that same as it has in the past, try this . . . .

1) Select one of the ideas listed below (or come up with your own idea!)

2) Pick a date that is one to two weeks away to do the selected activity

3) Write or Enter the activity on your calendar

4) Write the date and activity on a postee and place it somewhere where you will see it on a daily basis to remind yourself that you have this new and fun activity to anticipate.

• Try a new recipe - Check out Pinterest or google OR dig out your grandma’s old cookbook and try a classic!
• Buy a new boardgame to play with your family (or swap games with a friend)
• Schedule a day to go on a hike on a trail you’ve never tried before Don’t worry about the weather – bundle up!
• Order take out from a restaurant you’ve never eaten at before
• Read a book - When is the last time you shut off your electronics and got lost in a good mystery or a saucy romance?
• Pick a new TV show or movie to watch.  If you think you’ve watched them all over the past ten months, check out a classic!
• Organize a Minute to Win it game night for your family.  Check out this link to some winter-themed games using materials that you may have at home or that you can find at the dollar store: Winter Minute to Win It - Primary Playground
• Invite your family or friends to a Virtual Game Night or Happy Hour.  Follow this link to some game ideas to play virtually many of which are FREE: How to Play Hilarious Group Games Virtually - Money Fit Moms

Planning an activity or event for the near future will take a little bit of time, doesn’t have to require a lot of money and will replace some of your Post-Holiday Blues with some positive anticipation.

But if we learn to think of it as anticipation, as learning, as growing, if we think of the time we spend waiting for the big things of life as an opportunity instead of a passing of time, what wonderful horizons open out!

Anna Neagle

Picture Sources: www.lynhicks.com, cs.ox.ac.uk

Ditch the Resolution. Set a SMART Resolution for 2021.

A hot topic of conversation this time of year is New Year’s Resolutions.  Research done by Discover Healthy Habits revealed that there’s a near even 50/50 split of people who make resolutions versus those who don’t.  The number one reason why people don’t make a resolution is that they’ve been unsuccessful in keeping resolutions in the past so why bother.  Of those surveyed who made a resolution in 2019 only 7% were successful in keeping their resolution.  7%!!!  That means that 93% gave up before the year’s end.  With those odds I’d be hesitant to make a resolution.

  

But hold on.  Don’t stop reading just yet.  There is hope for New Year’s Resolutions.

The #1 reason why people said that they were unsuccessful in keeping their resolution is that their resolution was unrealistic.  Looking at the statistics of resolution maintenance throughout the year, the percentage of people holding strong to their resolution dropped month by month.  This demonstrates to me that the timeliness of a typical resolution is too long.  It’s tough to wait twelve months to acknowledge success. 

Wait a minute – do two of the words in that paragraph look familiar to some of you?  Realistic.  Timely.  Don’t we find them in the goal acronym – SMART? 

Let’s look at the most popular resolutions of 2020 and see how we can make them SMART Resolutions for 2021.

Resolution: I will eat better in 2021.

SMART Resolution: I will eat one piece of fresh fruit five days a week in January.

Resolution: I will get in shape in 2021.

SMART Resolution: I will take a walk four times a week in January.

Resolution: I will save money in 2021.

SMART Resolution: I will set-up an automatic transfer of $50 from every paycheck to my Savings Account by January 31, 2021.

You might be asking yourself, “These are SMART goals, but what about the other eleven months of the year?”  Well, who says that a resolution can only be made on January 1^st and must end on December 31^st?  One of my personal mottos is: 

Set Small Goals, Celebrate Often

 By January 31 your January resolution has become a habit.  HIGH FIVE!!  So you keep doing that one and set another resolution on February 1^st.

Resolution: I will eat better in 2021.

SMART Resolution: I will eat one piece of fresh fruit five days a week in January.

SMART Resolution: I will eat one vegetable five days a week in February.

Twelve months from now on December 31, 2021 you will have developed several new healthy habits resulting in you “eating better in 2021.”

I encourage you to not quickly brush off the idea of setting a New Year’s Resolution.  Instead, pause and consider how setting a SMART Resolution for yourself this year can change your life.

 

Resources:

www.discoverhappyhabits.com

Photo credit: www.fairygodboss.com, www.pinterest.com, www.blog.v-comply.com, www.goodnewsnotebook.com, www.vectorstock.com

Silence Negative Self-Talk by Phoning a Friend

For many of us these next few days are going to be difficult with changed holiday plans and missing family and friends.  When we are feeling down in the dumps it’s easy for our self-talk to guide us down a deep dark hole.  You don’t have to listen to that.  Interrupt that voice.  End that conversation by starting a new one – phone a friend!

1. Call the person who is always in your corner . . . your head cheerleader . . . that person who believes in you 100%!  Tell them you need a holiday pep talk and let them work their magic. 

2. Call someone you think would benefit from hearing a friendly voice on the other end of the line. Doing something for someone else will not only make that person happy but will re-focus your heart and put a smile back on your face.  

Don't let negative self-talk bring you down.  Take control by reaching out and talking with a friend.

Photo found on Pinterest

The Homestretch of 2020

“Be so proud of yourself for how you’ve handled this year.  I don’t know about you, but I fought so many silent battles.  I had to humble myself, wipe my own tears and pat myself on the back.  I’m sure you had to do the same.  Be proud of you.”   ~ Author Priscilla A. Ransom ~

We are entering the home stretch of 2020.  However, the home stretch is normally filled with family, friends, celebrations and many memory-making moments. 

For many of us this may be the hardest two weeks of the entire year.  The separation and isolation from family and friends will feel heavier than ever.  But you know what?  You have made it this far.  Holding tight to that fact, you can continue to move forward through these next two weeks.

To help propel you through this time, take a moment to make two lists and post them somewhere where you will see them on a daily basis to provide a visual reminder of your strength, of the good around you and of hope for the future.

1) Reflect on your victories of 2020.  What were your happiest moments? What were the moments that had you laughing until you cried?  What is something that you did that you would have never dreamed you would do?  What are the moments that you are going to cherish forever?  Write them down!

2) Count your blessings.  Take a moment and make a list of all the things that you have to be thankful for in your life.  Focusing on the good can help the bad not seem so bad.

Be proud of yourself for how you have handled 2020 and know that you have the strength and the perseverance to get through these final two weeks of this crazy year.

Picture credit: www.pinterest.com, www.wisemovement.blogspot.com