One thing I seem to be asked more and more is how do I stay motivated. Or better yet, how do I even get motivated to do something.

At this point I’d like to point out that I have next to no willpower, so you’ll be glad to hear that’s not my secret.

However, I am currently trying to squeeze an awful lot of stuff in to my precious time and it’s not always easy. Just to give you idea, here’s what I’ve currently got going on:

  • Management job in the city – at least 50hrs per week.
  • Keeping my blog up to date
  • Building awareness around my blog (‘networking’, twitter etc)
  • Huffington Post blog
  • Writing guest articles for other sites like Tiny Buddha
  • Writing a monthly article for Gridlock mens’ magazine
  • Seeing clients
  • Studying for my advanced counselling diploma
  • Volunteer befriending with elderly and isolated people in my neighbourhood.
  • Personal sadhana (yoga practice)
  • Having a life and spending time with my friends and partner.

Wow, when you write it all down it seems like quite a lot doesn’t it?

I talk to a lot of people doing a lot of stuff, especially those with children and I honestly think it’s amazing they manage to get anything done, but people do, don’t they?

Now, some people may just bulldoze themselves through life and force themselves to get their jobs done, but they probably don’t end up as satisfied as those who go about things a different way.

Want to know my secret? Whenever I’m looking at taking on a new project or I’m about to sit down and write, I ask myself why I’m doing it. Why bother?

If the answer is something like ‘it needs doing’ or ‘no-one else is going to do it’, chances are you’re not going to get much out of doing it and it’s going to be a major chore.

If that’s the case, why are you doing it? Is there a work around? I hate hoovering, with a passion. The noise drives me insane. But I currently live in a tiny flat in north London so for the five minutes it takes to hoover it, I don’t mind for the benefits it gives me.

However, in my lovely house (now rented 🙁 ) in Liverpool, where money goes infinitely further, I had a lovely big south-facing garden. Again, with the noise, I loathed cutting the grass in the summer. This time it took about half an hour of my time, so I paid a neighbour to cut it for me.

People I knew said this was ridiculous but for me, it was all about priorities. Paying a few pounds of my money to someone to save me cutting the grass was a great deal for me. I never had to worry about it.

When I look at the list above, there’s nothing I hate doing. In fact, most of it I look forward to.

The key to motivation isn’t forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do, it’s finding work arounds for those things (like paying someone else, breaking it down in to small chucks, rewarding yourself or whatever) and focusing instead on what naturally gets you excited about life.

There are always going to be things you don’t really enjoy, but I bet, if you make a list, there’s stuff you can let go of and make yourself happier in the process.

For everything else, there’s chocolate 🙂

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