February 6, 2024

Hello friends,

When making progress on your goals gets challenging, it is important to recognize and reconnect with why it matters to you in the first place. And it might not be the reason you think it is.

I’ve been really investing in my health over the past few years, especially the past 6 or so months. In that time, I’ve lost weight, something that for various reasons I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember. But it turns out that moving the number on a scale isn’t motivating to me. Neither is an abstract concept of longevity. What is really motivating to me is the absence of pain, or, to put it more positively, feeling great in my body. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy that the number has gone down and that I like what I see in the mirror, but those were never enough to get me to make the major behavioral changes that have been necessary for those results. The clear cause and effect around pain has been.

One of my biggest areas of potential growth that I’ve been focusing on this year is working on my people pleasing tendencies. I think it is a good thing to be motivated by community and the positive impact you have on others, but fear of rejection or of disappointing people isn’t motivating, its paralyzing. Even if it gets you moving in the beginning, it is not a sustainable source of motivation for me. I’ve been trying to honestly look at what I do because I feel obligated to or because I’m afraid of disappointing people and to decide if I take those things away, do I still want to do that thing and why do I want it for myself.

Today, I want to take an honest look at what actually motivates you, not what you think motivates you, not what you want to motivate you, but what actually helps you show up for yourself and your goals day after day.

Take 5-15 minutes and write about

What motivates you?

Your friend,
Laura