When To Ignore: Not Feeling Like It?

I ask myself often about the importance of the glorified MOTIVATION when doing stuff I know is going to be good for me.

More specifically my clients and myself ask the question, Should I listen to whether or not I’m FEELING LIKE IT when it comes to changing habits and doing new things.

After reading this post I hope I can shed some light on when you should JUST DO IT and when you Should NOT DO IT AT ALL.

We have all been there.

Tired of where we are with fitness and health, maybe we wanted to start going to the gym.

After signing up and paying the first month yesterday. Today, after work is going to be the first session, you are booked in for a class and with good intentions took your gym kit with you.

It’s been a stressful day at work, then 4:45 pm comes around and you are booked in for a 5:30 pm class. But somehow just not FEELING LIKE IT.

In your mind you are thinking,

It’s been 100 years since last time you exercised.

My clothes are outdated and a bit tight at the moment.

Definitely everyone in this class are going to be fitter than me

What if they think I’m a loser?

Somewhere between fearing you are not good enough and feeling the pressure of some emails waiting.

You make a quick 5 min decision and choose to NO SHOW your class, complete the emails.

Then you stop by the grocery store buy some COMFORT FOOD and then get some REST AND RELAX time with Netflix after dinner.

After all it was a busy day and that is what we FEEL LIKE DOING.

Then while sitting there, you are not relaxed, you are actually thinking why the fuck did I not go to the gym today?

I could continue on for DAYS.

And I could probably fill a library with examples that all tell similar stories about NOT FEELING LIKE IT.

But to sum them up, and keep this short. Most often we do not feel like doing anything NEW, that brakes our habits and challenges us in unsettling ways.

This is because our brains are developed to protect us, by stopping us in case of anything unfamiliar, different or potentially threatening things happened to us. As soon as we try to do something new we pop out of our automatic ways to behave, and the brain asks “are you really sure you want to do this?”

This is why making changes demands of us to make conscious decisions to shut our brain up, say YES and choose the NEW less comfortable action - and to keep doing it until it starts to feel familiar and safe.

After you have done it (according to science for 21 days straight) That is the only point you start to FEEL LIKE IT with your new action or habit.

The Old Motto, In A New Way

Motivation Is What Gets You Started, Habit Is What Keeps You Going.

And this is exactly what that means.

Motivation also called the desire to not stay the same, can be used to sign up for the gym. But can not be used to actually go there, since its not enough on its one. You will need to break the action of going there into smaller habits, or decisions that you feel comfortable with choosing to do, to get going.

For example, by putting on your gym clothes, just putting the shoes on, just going there and completing the warm up something “small enough” to not be scary.

Truth of the matter is when that "don´t feel like it" feeling pops up once we are doing the new thing, listen to it with kindness.

And just like we would with a 3 year old that is scared to enter the new playground, encourage ourselves to do it anyways.

What to Do?

You Don’t Have to Stay On This Rollercoster

And Now That You Know Why New Things Are Scary

It’s Time To Look It In The Eyes And Say

I´m Going To Do it Anyway´s!

If you relate to this NOT FEELING LIKE IT rut, you can join my 7 day free action challenge, it is designed to help you first identify your motivation and then put it into action.

With only 30 min of self reflection/journaling each day, you can start to take more badass actions and make the unfamiliar into a familiar and safe habit.

Much Love, Keep Going - With Kindness!