Staying motivated in spite of your feelings!

I was recently speaking at a conference, and one of the other speakers was Turia Pitt. You might recall that Turia was running an ultra marathon when she found herself trapped in a bushfire.

After suffering catastrophic burns, she survived to tell her story. Her message is inspiring, challenging and confronting all at the same time. She stays motivated in spite of her pain and her feelings. Feelings of anger, injustice and gratefulness all rolled in together. Turia’s story is also detailed in her book "Everything To Live For”.

How do you stay motivated? I often tell myself, 'faith it 'til you make it Lisa!' Turia Pitt says 'fake it till you feel it!' They both say something about the way we deal with our feelings.

Feelings can be deceptive. We often don't feel like working hard or putting in extra effort. We do, however, want the positive outcome that focused effort delivers. So, we push through in spite of our feelings and believe that something good is going to come out of it.

Negative or self-centred feelings can lead you to low effort or no effort activity, often resulting in no positive outcomes. It's therefore really important to consider the outcomes you desire in the midst of your feelings.

Make decisions based on the results you want, and take the actions that bring those results. Enable yourself to do what matters. Learn to make each moment count.

Sometimes an apology is the only thing that can change your situation. We rarely feel like apologising. However, this is one area where responding quickly can save you hours of anguish or agonising.

Don't have a debate with your feelings. Just do it! Just do the right thing and the feelings will follow. Or put another way, faith it till you make it!