Staying motivated… doing the work when the going gets tough

Since my awakening, I have resolved to live life. Like… live it. Feel it. Breathe it. Embody it. Embrace it and everything that comes with that intention. I’ve committed to doing the work when the going gets tough.

Each day, I wake hungry for enlightenment and ready for change. I jump in with both feet and study, absorbing and researching teachings that interest me. Then, I take action in my life, and apply what I’ve learned. I live it and use it to devour life.

I want to go with life. I desire ease and flow.

I understand that I need to take action when ideas come in or new practices resonate. It’s up to me to manifest ideas I’ve downloaded in meditation and take action in my life.

But what about the days I don’t want to?

What about the days my joints hurt so bad I feel like I’m 80?

What about the days I’m emotionally drained from a visit with my mom, who is dying of lung cancer?

What about the days when my loving toddler pushes every… single… button… that I have?

How do I muster up the strength to do it during those challenging times?

Whatever it takes

I keep myself motivated—whatever it takes.

Most important, I let it be okay if I’m at the end of my rope.

I let it be okay that I’m tired.

I let it be okay that I ate an apple and peanut butter for dinner last night.

I let it be okay that I left an enormous pile of dishes in the sink for tomorrow.

I remind myself to walk into my bathroom and read the inspirational quotes I have taped to the wall. They are always better than what’s running in my head at those times.

I remind myself that an extra meditation lifts me up.

I fall back on the tools I learned to save my life, especially when it feels as though it’s all unraveling.

Life passes in small bits—in moments. What I mean is, our life is happening now, in the present moment.

The mind replays past present moments through memory and anticipates future present moments with imagination. That’s what it does. It’s a gradual process of thought after thought, emotion after emotion, moment by moment.

What Zig Ziglar taught us about motivation

Motivation works that way too—moment by moment.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.

It’s in those moments that we aren’t motivated that we must GET motivated!

We all get tired.

We all get punched in the face by life.

But staying motivated—especially when it’s hardest—creates the change and awakening we so desperately seek.

That’s how life starts working for you, not against you.

That’s how you go with the flow and live a life of ease.

You get what you think about, whether you want it or not

We must also remember that we always get what we want. Well, we get what we vibrate. If we vibrate good, we get good. If we vibrate stress, we get stress.

When we want change, we must vibrate what is wanted—even and especially when we are in the midst of the unwanted.

Stay motivated in tough times by focusing on the larger goal of well-being and the gradual process of change. Ground in acceptance of what is and ask, “What do I need in this moment to feel better?”

For me, it’s meditating or wrapping myself in a blanket. Sometimes, I need to cry. And sometimes, I just lay on my yoga mat, staring at the ceiling, surrounded by props… convincing myself I’m practicing yoga. Other nights, it’s watching rom coms and stand up comedy on Netflix.

I let it be okay that that’s what I needed in those moments. I trust that the intensity of life will pass and I will feel better. I trust I will be able to breathe again and that whatever I’m going through is just the result of life greeting me where I am.

In times of sadness, stress or imbalance, I always ask the questions:

• How can I grow from this?
• What lessons am I meant to learn from this experience?

I ask in meditation and let the answers come to me. I read, I practice my yoga, I write, I make art, I move. I find the answers I need and motivate myself with support.

No matter what state I’m in, it’s going to shift and get better because I have the power to make it so.

Keeping myself motivated gives me my power back.

Believing it will get better gives me my power back.

I understand that even in the most desperate situations, the universe generously gives me what I have asked for.

In the moments when the rug has been pulled out from under me and the life I know has crumbled around me, I take solace in the fact that it’s destruction before creation.

It’s the storm before the calm. That’s how life works. That’s why we get punched in the face by life. And that’s why we go on. It’s the destruction of what is known that is scary, even though it isn’t what is wanted.

We get used to our drama and our suffering.

The only way out is through. The only way to the light and creation is to endure the damage.

It’s in those moments that you must choose to stay motivated and DO THE WORK.

The manifestation is the final realization. The feeling of what is wanted must come first before the manifestation comes to fruition. That’s the challenge. That’s the choice, otherwise we get the same outcomes and get stuck in a cycle of suffering.

Tell yourself the truth and meet your needs.

Be there for yourself. Show up for life.

Do the work and pretty soon the shift will happen.

Life will start showing up for you the moment you believe that everything happens for your higher learning and that life is rigged in your favor.