{"id":577,"date":"2013-01-03T17:46:21","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T17:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/?p=577"},"modified":"2013-01-08T19:29:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T19:29:37","slug":"is-motivation-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/is-motivation-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Is motivation enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Year is here and I realize that I have failed miserably in one of the two New Year Resolutions<\/strong> I\u00a0made last year, which was to exercise for 20 minutes 5 times per week.<\/p>\n

Nothing strenuous, just going for a walk for 20 minutes or on stepping on the treadmill<\/strong> which is 7 feet away\u00a0from my bed.<\/p>\n

Mind you, I achieved the goal probably 20 out of the 52 weeks, especially in May\/June and September\/October when it is particularly pleasant to walk on the promenade not far from my house (see picture\u00a0below).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem is that I have never built the HABIT.<\/strong> And that got me thinking. A goal is temporary. You set\u00a0a reasonable target, attach it to a measure and frame it in time. Well, mine was not really framed in time\u00a0because 5 times per week was the measure, it was implicit that it would be throughout the whole year.\u00a0What about the emotional attachment to the result?<\/strong> Was it there? I’m not overweight, and I felt OK\u00a0physically, so \u2018getting healthier\u2019 although it was a strong motivation for me did not do the trick.<\/p>\n

Work got in the way, travelling got in the way, inertia got in the way! After 52 weeks glued to my computer\u00a0(although 6 of them were in the US in different cities) I realized that my clothes had shrunk, my back ached\u00a0and my suppleness had taken a dive.<\/p>\n

I take full responsibility for my failure\u2026 or better said my \u2018learning experience\u2019. It won\u2019t be a failure but a\u00a0mere set back if I do it this year, right?
\nI know that using the same technique at last year won\u2019t work (it didn’t before), so motivation is not\u00a0enough!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I reflected upon the issue and I decided to create the HABIT<\/strong> of walking 20 minutes per day. After all, if I\u00a0were to set a goal with a timeframe \u2018for life\u2019 it would scare me to death!<\/p>\n

To implement the habit I need a supporting STRUCTURE.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First: a trigger<\/strong> – something I already do – have lunch, for instance. I’ll have a walk after lunch before I dive\u00a0into obliviousness.
\nSecond: a Plan B<\/strong> – if I am with a customer, or some something gets in the way, I will do 20 minutes on the\u00a0treadmill before dinner.
\nThird: an accountability partner<\/strong> – my husband Ray (I know what he was my accountability partner last year\u00a0but, after all, I failed him – or so I choose to think).
\nFourth: records<\/strong> – I’ll draw a flower next to the date in my diary – keep it simple, there is no point in wasting\u00a0time complicating it.
\nFifth: reward<\/strong> – positive and negative. If I fail, 5 more minutes the following day. After the first 30\u00a0consecutive days with 0 compliance failure I\u2019ll book a romantic weekend getaway for Ray and me (who\u00a0else?).<\/p>\n

I am confident that after that momentum will take over and I’ll feel much better, more energized and my\u00a0clothes will go back to their right size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Year is here and I realize that I have failed miserably in one of the two New Year Resolutions I\u00a0made last year, which was to exercise for 20 minutes 5 times per week. Nothing strenuous, just going for a walk for 20 minutes or on stepping on the treadmill which is 7 feet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":604,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}