Motivation Can Be Developed Internally or Externally!
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably set health and wellness goals at one point or another. Maybe you wanted to lose a few pounds. Or improve your fitness. Or make better food choices. Whatever your goal, you likely felt a burst of motivation when you first started your journey. The excitement of a new goal kept you on track for a few days, or weeks, or even months.
But you can’t solely rely on motivation because it will eventually die out and your old habits will start to take over again...bringing you right back to where you started.
Many people view motivation as something you either have, or you don’t have. But the truth is, you can improve your motivation. And a Health & Wellness Coach can help you do it. The role of a Health & Wellness Coach isn’t just to try to motivate you with words of encouragement. Rather, your coach’s job is to empower you to achieve your goals by helping you develop intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is the kind of motivation that comes from within, because an action brings personal satisfaction or fulfillment. And it’s much more effective for lasting change than external motivation, like deadlines, punishment, or rewards. Developing intrinsic motivation requires taking a holistic view of all the factors that affect your health and well-being. This includes your emotions, physical attributes, behavior, and lifestyle.
By working with a Health & Wellness Coach, you’ll explore these factors and develop a plan — and the mindset — to keep you motivated as you work towards your goals.
In particular, your coach will:
Help you discover the purpose behind each of your goals
Help you set clear and realistic goals
Provide support throughout the process
Each of these are critical to staying motivated and are described in more detail below.
A Health & Wellness Coach can help you discover your purpose
The first step to making lasting behavioral changes is to get clear on why you want to make these changes in the first place.
Your relationship with your Health & Wellness Coach will begin with a discussion about your:
Personal situation
Values
Priorities
Goals
Together, you’ll explore what motivates you internally. For some people, motivations may be fear-based, such as not wanting to develop illnesses. For others, motivations may be loved-based, such as wanting to be able to play with their children.
And if you’re feeling ambivalent about change, your coach will guide you through exploring that to identify a strategy on how to move forward.
This process is called “motivational interviewing.”
Motivational interviewing will engage you in the decision-making process. It will also focus you on your internal reasons for making changes. You can then come up with a plan that uses these motivators to make progress towards your goals. Through your discussion with your coach, you’ll also learn to develop:
Self-empathy
Self-awareness
Confidence
Resilience
Some people may want a coach to tell them what to do. But uncovering your own purposes is key to staying motivated and making sustainable changes in your life.
As you discuss your goals and motivations with your coach, you’ll become more aware of your problems and what’s possible. You’ll have a better understanding of where you currently are, and where you want to be. And as a result, you’ll be better able to find a way to move forward with your goals.
In addition, over time, it can be easy to forget why you wanted to make these changes in the first place. Your coach will help you keep your reasons in the forefront — especially when you face challenges and your motivation starts to waver.
A Health & Wellness Coach can help you set clear, realistic goals
After you have a clear understanding of what you actually want to achieve and why, your Health & Wellness Coach will help you create an action plan. This means setting clear, realistic goals while challenging you to learn new skills.
Your goals aren’t something your coach can tell you. Just like it’s up to you to uncover your purposes, it’s also up to you to define your goals. Still, your Health & Wellness Coach can teach you effective goal-setting and decision-making strategies that will keep you focused on the long-term outcome.
Learning to make these kinds of decisions is important to staying motivated. By developing your own plan, you’ll gain the skills and confidence necessary to manage your goals in the future.
In particular, a Health & Wellness Coach can help you:
Envision success. Part of staying motivated is envisioning what your life will be like when you reach your goals. Your coach can help you develop a mental picture of what success looks like in detail.
The more you visualize success, the more you start to believe it can happen for you. And once that happens, your motivation to make it happen will increase, too!
Develop clear and concrete goals. Sometimes, goals are generic and unrealistic. Vague goals aren’t helpful because it’s harder to know when you’ve achieved them. But with the help of a coach, you can transform vague goals into highly specific and realistic goals.
These goals will be attainable and measurable. Your coach will help you define an effective timeframe for achieving your goals, too. When you have something clear and specific to work towards, you’re much more likely to stay motivated.
Break down long-term goals into smaller goals. Your personalized action plan should include both short- and long-term goals. Having a larger vision in mind is important. But your coach can help you break down your long-term goals into more manageable pieces.
Setting smaller goals that can be achieved over a shorter period of time will set you up for success. These small wins along the way will help you stay motivated and celebrate what you have already accomplished. Your coach will also help you revisit your goals over time. As time passes, life circumstances or your priorities may change, and you may need to adjust.
Develop routines, rituals, and processes. Your Health & Wellness Coach will also help you develop routines, rituals, processes that get you closer to achieving your goals. These can get you into the right mindset for staying on track, especially when you face obstacles.
Factors like lack of time, financial constraints, weather, medical issues, or other unforeseeable circumstances can often derail goals and decrease motivation. But challenges are inevitable. A coach will help you create processes for dealing with them, so that you can always make progress.
There are many ways a Health & Wellness Coach can help you set and achieve your goals. But it’s important to remember that you still have to decide for yourself what will and will not work for you. A good Health & Wellness Coach is your ally, but they’ll never tell you what to do.
What they will do is help you identify goals that are meaningful to you. They’ll help you identify what’s prevented you from accomplishing your goals in the past. They’ll help you create a realistic plan to achieve your goals. And they’ll help you overcome challenges as you work towards your goals.
A Health & Wellness Coach can provide support and advice
While it’s up to you to define what you want and why you want it, your Health & Wellness Coach will be a valuable source of support and advice as you work towards your wellness goals.
No matter what your goals are, it helps to have someone on your side who can provide you with the tools you need to succeed. Your coach will always give you the space to come to your own conclusions.
Health & Wellness Coaches will listen to you carefully, ask meaningful questions, and provide non-judgmental support. This style of coaching can be very beneficial in staying motivated.
Here are a few specific ways your Health & Wellness Coach can support you on your journey:
Dealing with challenges. As you continue on your health and wellness journey, you’ll inevitably hit obstacles that test your motivation. As you work through these challenges, your Health & Wellness Coach will be a strong source of encouragement.
And if something in your action plan isn’t working, your coach can help you come up with changes to your plan. With this kind of guidance, you’re less likely to procrastinate and become discouraged by setbacks.
Overcoming negative thinking, fear, and guilt. To stay motivated over time, you’ll need to learn to overcome negative thinking and self-doubt. Your coach can help you shift to a more positive way of thinking. Health & Wellness Coaches can remind you to experiment with different approaches and embrace failure as part of your journey.
They can also help you to eliminate the fear and guilt you feel when you go off track to help you eliminate the binges and feelings of failure that keep you from getting back on track. Your Health & Wellness Coach will help you explore strategies for overcoming fear and guilt that hinders your progress.
Celebrating successes. Often, it can be difficult to recognize your own successes, especially as you work towards long-term goals. A Health & Wellness Coach can help you keep the big picture in mind and recognize all you’ve accomplished.
They’ll help you look back to where you started and celebrate all the progress you’ve made. In other words, they’ll help you “measure backwards” from your current position, so you can recognize and be proud of just how far you’ve come.
After all, big changes require patience as they usually happen gradually. By regularly evaluating and celebrating your progress, you’ll be more likely to stay motivated. You’ll also be in a better mindset to handle obstacles and frustrations. Having consistent positive support that a Health & Wellness Coach provides is critical to staying motivated and on track. If you surround yourself with negative people and influences, you’re more likely to lose sight of your goals. A coach can help keep you in a positive mindset, which will allow you to stay motivated, focused, and inspired.
A Health & Wellness Coach can help set you up for future success
It’s worth repeating: the job of a Health & Wellness Coach isn’t to tell you what to do, how to do it, or why you are doing it.
You are, after all, the expert on your own life. And only you have the power to follow through on your goals. You will have to learn how to develop your habits from within, and forge your own path.
Still, a Health & Wellness Coach will help you shape your own unique path. This will be done by asking the right questions, helping you to identify what your true wellness needs and priorities are, and co-creating a realistic action plan tailored to your specific needs.
Through this process, you’ll strengthen your intrinsic motivation. You’ll also learn how to stay connected to your intrinsic motivations over time. And as a result, you’ll be able to make meaningful, sustainable changes in your life.
When you first start working with a coach, you may look to them for accountability. It is beneficial to have someone who knows and understands the purpose of your goals and is invested in seeing you succeed.
But over time, your dependency on your coach will decrease. This is because your coach will have given you the tools you need to keep yourself motivated and accountable.
In other words, once you’re able to tackle one goal, you’ll be better equipped to tackle others. By working with a Health & Wellness Coach, you’ll develop the self-reliance and self-motivation needed to succeed in the future.
Master your motivation with a Health & Wellness Coach
If you have health and wellness goals but are struggling to find the motivation to achieve them, it may be time to get the guidance of a Health & Wellness Coach.
By working one-on-one with a coach, you’ll be able to:
Uncover your true reasons for wanting to achieve your goals
Define clear and realistic goals
Devise a plan for working towards those goals
If you’re ready to master your motivation and finally achieve your health and wellness goals, contact us to start working with a certified Health & Wellness Coach today.
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