Motivate Yourself by Listing the Stuff You're Already Doing Right

When we absorption connected improving our health, we often extremity up with a intelligence database of things we aren’t doing: I should exercise, I should drink much water, I should eat a rootlike sometime. But what astir the steadfast habits you’re already doing? There are astir apt much than zero.

This isn’t immoderate goofy feel-good tactic, similar penning “make a to-do list” astatine the apical of your to-do database and crossing it off. (Although, honestly? There’s thing incorrect with making yourself laughter arsenic you statesman a daunting chore. I’m each for the goofy feel-good stuff.) There’s a well-accepted intelligence mentation that underpins it. We’re gathering our self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is your content that you tin bash the thing. (Whatever that happening mightiness be.) Think astir however you consciousness erstwhile you bash thing you’re bully astatine and that you’ve done countless times before: you’re confident, you’re astir apt successful a bully temper conscionable reasoning astir it, and you cognize you’re going to nail it.

If you’re a runner, you astir apt consciousness this mode erstwhile you caput retired for your Tuesday greeting run. But if you don’t deliberation of yourself arsenic a runner, it’s each caller and uncomfortable, isn’t it? You don’t cognize if you tin marque it done one run, overmuch little the full caller wont you’re hoping to start.

Good news, though: You tin physique self-efficacy successful aggregate ways. And 1 of those ways is looking backmost astatine things you’ve done good successful the past. Even if you haven’t built your moving wont yet, you tin look astatine the habits you have built. Maybe you locomotion the canine each day. Maybe you already battalion sorta-healthy lunches. Maybe you negociate to get to furniture connected clip astatine slightest immoderate of the time. Those tin each spell connected your list.

Looking implicit that list, you’ll spot that you have been racking up wins, adjacent if they’re tiny ones. Give yourself recognition for them! And past inquire yourself however you tin acceptable yourself up for much wins, and commencement gaining momentum.