Keeping Your Fire Stoked
December 2014 Insights
There’s no better feeling then pride and success in living a life you can truly say you love to live. So naturally, maintaining and sustaining our life objectives can be filled with a whole lot of trepidation. Most if not all of my clients inevitably come to me and share their concerns over their fears of possibly falling back to old defeating habits, losing their momentum and squashing their potential. So since it’s almost the end of the year I thought I’d take this month’s newsletter to not only address this shared concern but also highlight these insights as valued strategies for everyone to consider moving into the new year.
Essentials For Sustaining Success
#1 Rid Yourself Of An “All or Nothing” Mentality– Life is cyclical, nothing stays constant. So to expect our motivation levels to always be at peak performance is unreasonable. The most common demise I see many women fall prey to is their tendency to have that all or nothing mentality. Viewing themselves as either on a mission to succeed or off creates a scenario for self-sabotage. Understanding that there is a natural ebb & flow to success can help reduce what I call the “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” syndrome. In other words, just because you may be feeling frustrated, challenged or disappointed with your progress or enthusiasm for a particular life objective, it doesn’t mean you are resorting back to old limiting behaviors and should throw in the towel.
#2 Align Your Life Objectives, Goals & Tasks At Hand With Your Core Values– Core values are those qualities or elements that are most important for you to have in your life.They are often the principles we live by and capture the essence of who we are. As a result they are emotionally charging and mobilize us to take action. When you operate based upon your core values, you are more fully engaged in the task or role at hand. Therefore, creating the greatest likelihood for success. Take the time to download the Values Clarification exercise (available on my website under “Valuable Downloads”) and identify your five most important values and then measure how closely your plan going forward is tied in with them.
#3 Practice Self-Love & Nurturance– With that being said be kind and patient with yourself. Sustainable growth doesn’t have to come in leaps and bounds, remember slow and steady can also win the race. The key here is to NOT allow that “why bother” or “how likely is it” mentality to prevail. Practice self care and take time to fuel your mind, body and soul.
#4 Energize Your Spirit– One of the best ways to combat waning motivation levels is to surround yourself with people and experiences that reignite your flame. Exposing yourself to anything that can assist your life objectives is key (i.e. reading relevant literature, socializing with positive & supportive people, signing up for recreational/educational courses that support your aspirations).
#5 Create a Vision of What You Aspire for Most– Visualize your hopes and dreams, paint a picture of what you see and how you feel as if all your aspirations are coming to fruition. Revisit this vision often, each time making the images more vivid and vibrant. Use this vision as a means for self-assessing to make sure your actions are in alignment with it.
#6– Give Attention to Your Intentions– In other words get busy! Make a deliberate action plan weekly, one that supports your life objectives. Download the SMART GOALS coaching tool (available on my website under “Valuable Downloads” ) and reread my June newsletter. Both will assist you in lessening the overwhelm that often accompanies task driven work and provide for greater accountability.
The most important thing to remember is that greater success and happiness is a work in progress, there is never an end state to self-development. Unfortunately, as I’ve said before there is no magic pill or silver bullet, life doesn’t get easier but you can certainly get better at navigating it. Great things can happen when you live your life with intention!
Wishing Everyone A Very New Year!
-Holly-