Simple way to stay motivated

Hi Everyone

Happy March! Spring is just around the corner, so let's all get ready to have fun! I have a simple way to help you do this.

I have started posting my highlight of the day on SparkPeople and I'll test copying these to Facebook as well. Importantly, this highlight can be in any area of life.

Here are five reasons this is such a powerful exercise:

First, good fitness and health is just a means to an end. The "end" is living a vibrant and SPARKED life. This will mean different things to different people. This daily highlight helps us keep in mind the reasons we're working to put together a good fitness and health plan in the first place.

Second, when you know that you will need to write down your highlight of the day either that night or the following day for the prior day, it gives you a different mindset for your day. Instead of just floating through the day, you are more likely to take control of the day and actively make highlights for that day.

Third, this simple form of goal-setting serves as a very positive form of accountability. If enough people like this and participate, I'd be happy to be Coach SparkGuy and provide some extra accountability and motivation by doing this regularly.

Fourth, this is a form of journal writing. I am a big fan of writing to yourself or to others. Sometimes just the process of writing something down might cause you to think about that activity or concept in a new light. You might realize that some actions were more important than you first thought. You also may end up writing more than you intended to and turn this activity into regular journal entries. This fits the "getting started is the hardest part" behavioral psychology trick.

Fifth, if you make this writing public, then it's a simple way to be involved in community. This sense of connecting with others can be a great motivator.

When you do this activity regularly, this mindset can end up making a dramatic impact on your life. I have done this regularly in the past and I really did actively search for highlights for that day and can tell I'm quickly re-building that mindset into a habit.

My highlight today was playing basketball with my son. This was the first time we played an actual 1-on-1 game since my surgery. He has asked me to do this since about 2 weeks after my surgery :). We went half-speed as a test without playing too much defense against each other. He won 18-11, but it felt like a win for me too :). I need to work on my shot. I can tell he's getting harder and harder to guard. This could be a problem.

As mentioned earlier, this highlight involved fitness, but the fitness was a means to an end of having fun with my son. Nutrition and fitness highlights are great too, I'm just over-emphasizing that highlights can also be from other areas of life.

What are your thoughts about this challenge? Did you have any highlights from yesterday or today that you'd like to share? Let me know either on my blog or on Facebook.

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SparkCheers!

Chris "SparkGuy" Downie



Chris (SparkGuy)

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