Hi, you lovely people!  This week I am giving you my 5 top tips for focusing on motivation – how to get it and more importantly, how to keep it! Personally, my motivation came when I realised how poor my health (both physical and mental) had become during lockdown. It took a long look in the mirror to decide that I needed to make myself the priority in my life, which included treating my mind and body with the respect it deserves – something which I had never done before. Good news though! You don’t need to be in the position I was in before change can occur.  All you have to do is make yourself the most important person in your life. Now, you might be thinking that I’m wrong and the most important person to you is your mum, or brother, or other half, but that’s not what I mean. You can love that person the most, but if you don’t make yourself the priority to grow and develop, how are you ever going to be the best possible version of yourself, for that person? The first, and hardest, step was to accept that I was enough, even though I was in both a physically and mentally poor state. I used to think that if I accept the way I am, then why would I need to exercise and eat my greens?  It comes down to respect. Just because I am exercising regularly and eating healthier foods it does not mean that I am unhappy with how I look and that I have not actually accepted myself, because I have. However, I (and you) can be so much more than we realise, and I lead the life that I believe will give me the greatest chance of achieving my potential. It starts with the decision to embrace change, which is scary as heck! After that it is just little steps. Folding your laundry, going for a walk in the evenings, just getting up on time and making your bed can be so fulfilling. It took me a while to realise that I don’t have to be running every day and maxing out at the gym in order for me to be making progress.  Another thing which has helped me stay on track is understanding myself and my body. To achieve this, I decided to invest in wearable data in the form of a cheap fitness watch (£30). I don’t use it to track calories burned, but for my steps, my heart rate and how much sleep I am getting, because they are what’s important to me. To get sustainable results, you can’t just be told “go for a run”, you need to have your own reason for making that decision which you can then draw upon to fuel you for a prolonged change. The reason must be important to you. If you say, “Because I want to feel better”, that’s great, but what does that mean to you because it means something very different to someone else. Be as specific as you can. What are your core values? What do you stand for? If this lifestyle change can connect you to those core beliefs, then you are more likely to invest time, resources and energy into the journey.  Having goals is important. Conversely, if you are setting vague goals you will only achieve vague results. You need to be specific. By knowing you and what you want will help, and if you don’t know then a self-discovery journey might need to happen beforehand. It is important that you find your own motivation for it to become sustainable. If someone else or an external source has to motivate you, then you aren’t likely to be on your journey for very long.  It has to be about your growth and development, and not for the attention or approval of others. In the same way, you cannot compare yourself to somebody else’s journey. We all have different goals and different bodies, so there is no point in getting disheartened when you don’t look like a celebrity. Social media is full of air brushed, edited, fine-tuned pictures that can make us feel insecure. But guess what, these people don’t look like that in real life. Own your body, be proud of it, look after it, and nourish it with healthy food and exercise. And stop worrying about getting rid of things that you’ll actually find, most other people don’t care about. You don’t need to have it together all the time – I ate everything in my house last week, and the old Sophie would have beaten herself up about it for days. However, the Sophie you know today decided not to dwell or worry about it because she is human and progress isn’t linear. The next day I just made sure I was making better decisions, that’s all. The past is the past and you can’t change it, so don’t waste your energy looking back, instead, use it to figure out how you are going to grow from it. Realise now that it is all going to take time. We live in an instant world where things happen at a click of a button and many forget that personal growth and development will take time (a lot of time). I anticipate that I won’t achieve my goals for about 8 months (I have just done 2.5 months), however, these are only my short term goals. Patience is key and I realise my journey is for life. I will never stop trying to grow or reach my potential, and neither should you! Have a great day! Soph x