Life Design Action: Side Step Motivation

Requires: Stealth, side ways glances and your innate Jedi powers.

Does not require: Motivational videos, Anthony Robbins enthusiasm or any hype … or noise. In fact noise is bad.

(Usually when I think about Motivation, I think of air punching, “you can DO IT!”s, spittle showers and toes nudging the accelerator. To me, in the past, motivation has been about powering up,  revving up and preparing to zoom forwards. However it turns out that sometimes making a lot of noise and becoming BIGGER than your challenge isn’t always the best route forwards. Sometimes the best motivation is through Winnie-The-Pooh humming and Piglet-like stealth. Then it’s about side stepping in and snatching your prize before even YOU have noticed what’s going on.)

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So, I have this power.

A Jedi Power.

R.e.a.l.l.y.

The Power emerged through my Chocolate/Cereal Bar Impediment. You may have this Impediment too. It involves not being able to resist eating any chocolate/cereal bars in the kitchen even if they are for the kid’s lunch boxes. (This also extends to Easter Eggs, saved treats and Advent Calendar chocolate).

If you have The Impediment too, don’t worry. It may mean you also have the Jedi Power.

Let’s see ….

For me, living with the Impediment is tough for I have birthed a child who has a Food Crime Radar.

I can literally sit on the sofa two metres away from Roo (having committed a Chocolate/Cereal Bar Crime) and he looks at me. And he KNOWS I’ve munched something nice. Narrowing his eyes, Roo then stands up and approaches me, his cute button nose quivering like a straightlaced little sniffer dog.

“Mum, what have you been eating?” he wheedles. “It smells like …”

And I sit there all bolt upright, lips pinned together for fear of leaking any chocolate/cereal bar deliciousness and trying to respond via my nostrils. Which, let’s face it, isn’t easy. And ultimately it is the same story every time. He runs to cupboard, finds Nutrigrain box, shakes, then publicly shames me.

Like I said, the Impediment is tough.

Hence why we sufferers develop The Power. (This does not involve running to Spar at midnight for replacements).

The Power involves making people see nothing but thin air when actually we are holding a huge stash of chocolate and a mug of tea!

Somehow I can now walk past the children holding an armful of Trackers, tea and Hobnobs and they don’t notice.

In fact, I get the same response as I would if I was struggling past battling to hold an armful of laundry.

Oblivion. Blankness.

And believe me – it isn’t because they don’t want what I’ve got. Hoooo-noooo. They literally don’t even SEE what I’m holding.

Because I decide they won’t.

I think Paul McKenna needs to speak with me about this because it must be a form of parental hypnosis.

So. How do I do it? Well, it is sort of hard to explain but mainly it is about being natural. Perfectly natural. You sort of breeze through (but not overly breezily as this draws suspicion especially with the Food Radar). You may think that this is just a fluke and they don’t notice … but I’ve even eating the Chocolate/Cereal Bars right in front of them whilst they are talking to me and THEY DON’T SEE.

Ahem. So what has all of this got to do with Motivation and Side Stepping Into Your Mojo?

Well, I’ve recently discovered that the same technique I’ve been using on my kids can also be used on myself. You see, Ads and I have embarked on rather an interesting “regime” called Insanity. Naughty N’s other half did it before Christmas and became incredibly fit and healthy. The only thing was that the regime was rather Gruelling. Gruelling for 60 Days.

The strange thing with this programme is that, had I cultivated the perception that Insanity was going to be insanely difficult (which it is) and on-going (which it is) and that I wouldn’t be able to eat cereal bars (which I can’t) I would then have felt Overwhelmed and Highly Challenged by it. This would then have required a huge, noisy, energetic BURST of motivation and fuel and fire.

But instead I just Jedi Mind-Tricked myself about the whole thing. Instead of bursting through the front door with my machine gun ready to take on The Regime, I kind of side stepped in and took it on. Calmly. Breezily. And my mind has barely noticed it. There’s been no resistance, not fight with my own will power. The level of self discipline I’ve experienced with the whole thing has been phenomenally unexpected.

We are now 14 days into something that I still would never consider doing (but thankfully I haven’t thought too much about and hence am doing).

So there you have it. The new form of Motivation. If you refuse to make a mountain out of a mountain, it can literally become a mole hill.

Which is important if you like to eat cereal bars as much as I do.

(We are the master of our own mind and our thoughts are like little radars, picking up on our fears, anxieties and guilt. The moment we show any form of emotional ripple, the inner chatter of “I can’t, I should, I can – or can I?” all begins too. Whatever project, change, programme or transformational move you are about to embark upon – try not to hype yourself up. The more you puff yourself up, the more you give yourself the message that this Thing has the power to defeat you. Just side step into it, humming and shrugging and tum-tumming like Winnie The Pooh would. After all, lets face it … Winnie The Pooh is The Man).