Conquer Self-Motivation to Supercharge Your Life

Self-Motivation is Your Most Powerful Tool

Self-motivation is definitely a valuable asset, but let’s face it, you have to want some things badly enough to get over the hurdles your mind has created in its misguided effort to protect you. There are roadblocks to your progress you need to exhume and clear before you can progress as far and fast as you desire.

Often, you don’t even know you have those blocks unless you get tired of hitting the wall time and time again, and begin searching within for answers. Be ready to learn some of your blocks go back generations, and are practically cemented into your DNA. Also, be ready to meet a lot of resistance as you try digging those pesky things out all the way down to the roots. They’re embedded for a reason, and aren’t going to take removal lightly.

I’ve been stuck in a number of places in my life and career. Though I’ve identified some of the blocks, I’ve had mixed success removing them. Some have been easy to break away, like the crumbling mortar in an earthquake ravaged brick wall. Others tease me by pulling away slightly, only to snap back, sending me tumbling head over heels when I turn my attention away for even a nanosecond. When the dust clears, I’ve lost all the ground I gained, and then some.

Identify Your Fears

Most of the ones I’ve identified lately require a digging tool I’ve yet to add to my virtual tool box. Things like:

• Fear of success
• Fear of releasing my protective, but unhealthy layer of fat
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of acceptance
• Fear of buying a new house and moving myself, my cats, and thousands of books
• Fear of exposure

As you can see, some of them are interconnected, so who knows how deeply their roots are both intertwined and embedded? Some require the fast, merciless attack of a sledgehammer or flamethrower, while others need the gentler, more targeted ministrations of a dentist’s scraping tool. It’s not always clear which will be the best approach until I get in there and start scraping away years of muck and grime to expose what I’ll be working with.

With some, I’ve had limited success. I’ve been able to release about 30 pounds, though the next 10 have been more yo-yo than release. I’m regularly publishing my words in several forums, though most have a limited readership, so I’ve yet to be fully exposed, even if I do show up every day on the “Live With Sheri and Friends” I post on my Facebook page.

What’s Holding You Back?

Others are keeping me hobbled.

• Releasing the next 10 pounds permanently
• Completing any one of my WIPs and moving forward with publishing
• Developing a strong, resilient business capable of weathering storms like COVID
• Finishing the remodel I started several years ago
• Developing a broader scope of business connections (to date, most people who ask to connect are trying to sell me their services, but have no interest in mine)
• Adding daily walks back into my routine

Though these might seem diverse, they’re interconnected in their own way. The diversity simply makes it more difficult to untangle the rat’s nest of limiting beliefs and behaviors. One thing I’ve learned while disentangling as much as I have is to always look beneath the surface. Not only does motivation impact how much resistance a block offers, but the underlying issue as well.

For example, the excess weight I’ve spent most of my life working to release is entangled with my fears of acceptance, success, rejection, and exposure. They’re an unholy mess of false beliefs and expectations that keep me taking one step forward, and 42 back. What progress I do make is predicated on a willingness to accept not only unknown consequences, but the ones I’ve built up into a tsunami of inappropriate proportions inside my fear-riddled brain.

Stop Fear in its Tracks With Self-Motivation

Many have called me brave for some of the things I’ve done in the last 20 years or so, but in reality, I finally stopped believing the lies my brain was telling me in a misbegotten effort to keep me safe. I know it’s the solution to eradicating existing fears, but am still looking for the key to unlock the deepest, darkest parts which cling with a death grip to what my heart knows isn’t, and never was in my best interests.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, self-motivation is a piece of the puzzle I seek. I have to want something badly enough to face a few internal battles I know will be bloody and painful. I have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what the prize is for overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds that were stacked against me before I was even born.

The operative word here is “seemingly” because I know the brain magnifies what’s most likely to trigger retreat on the part of the heart. Mine is doing its best to convince me the goal isn’t worth the trouble. My heart has the dubious honor of exposing all the lies in those arguments. But the heart isn’t without its own tools and strengths, else I wouldn’t have overcome as much as I have; exposed ancestral wounds for what they are, and even broken an old pattern or two.

Listen to Your Heart

Your heart is stronger than you might believe, because you’ve overcome your own challenges; your own great odds in order to achieve the success you have; in life, in love, in your vocation, and avocation.

One of the best tools I’ve found for strengthening self-motivation is to narrow my focus. Instead of looking ahead to what my brain tells me are insurmountable odds, and loves to exaggerate through graphic examples that would impress Hollywood’s best special effects team, is to look back, if only for a minute, to what you’ve already overcome in order to reach the peaks you’ve conquered.

Look at the lessons you’ve learned, the traumas you’ve weathered, the community you’ve built, and the support system that’s there for the asking. If, like me, one of your challenges is asking for, and receiving help, look at the times you opened that door, and the light shining through when you did. Recognize how far your own self-motivation has taken you, though you may not have recognized it as such at the time.

Want Success Badly Enough

See how visualizing something, and wanting it badly enough has carried you farther than you thought you’d go 10…20…30 years ago. What depths did you sink to before you crawled, bloodied, bruised, and broken out of a pit of misery and despair to become the amazing human you are today? What muscles did you develop in the process, and what did you learn you will no longer tolerate.

Build on what you find. Play on those strengths. Use them to overcome what’s getting in your way now, because in most cases, it’s more smoke and mirrors than actual substance. It’s your brain creating a false reality; a false future you don’t have to accept.

You’ve got this!

 

About the Author

Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.

If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author.

Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.