3 Tips on How to Stay Motivated | Jim Kwik

Hello, Kwik Brains. So this is a different kind of podcast episode. We are doing this live on Instagram and on Facebook, and the question that I am going to address today— it's a very popular question— is how do you stay motivated and sustain that over the course of a day or a week or a year or even a decade? And this is a very special 2020 episode We are doing this live, so this is, as always, this is unscripted. This is raw. This is real, but I think it's gonna be extremely relevant. So we are on Instagram, and hello to everybody that's there. And if you're watching this on social media, know that we do have a podcast that you can find on iTunes, on Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Google Play, all your favorite platforms. And We're going to do this in about 15 minutes, like every one of our shows, and give you some practical tips on how to have sustainable motivation, because some people get motivated for the moment and then it wears off. If you are listening to us on a podcast, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram @JimKwik, where we offer this kind of training also as Well, and when I'm thinking about 2020, I'm thinking about a new year of vision, right? Eyesight, 20/20 eyesight, clarity, and having crystal clear objectives, goals of who you want to be, what you want to be able to do, what do you want to have and create and share with the world. Now, when I'm thinking about motivation— Hi everybody. I love all the hearts and the hellos. We have people watching this from all over the world. And I'm excited to start this new year or this new decade with you. So there are 3 parts to what I'm thinking about motivation. It's not complex in my mind at all. What I'm thinking about is having a reason, having a purpose to do something. I don't believe you need to be feeling good about working out. It certainly helps. I don't think you have to feel good about journaling or meditating. Or doing the hard stuff. But I do believe you need a reason. Now, certainly you can choose to improve your emotional state and find joy and gratitude in it. Ask yourself things like, how can I enjoy this more? Or change your languaging, like, oh no, I gotta work out, I gotta read today. But maybe you change that word from gotta Yeah, I get to work out today. I get to meditate. I get to do my reading today. So the feeling changes, but you start with— if you want sustainable motivation, you start with your purpose. Because I, again, I don't believe you have to feel like you enjoy doing something that you have to do, but I do feel like the things that you do, you have to have a purpose behind doing it. I take a cold shower, you know, every morning or an ice bath. I do not like it. I do not enjoy it, but I do it because I have a reason to, because it helps reset my nervous system, because it helps energize me, because it lowers inflammation in my body, because I get myself to do difficult things. And I've trained myself to do difficult things because I think if we just do the easy things, which is staying unmotivated, which is procrastinating, and life gets difficult. But if you do the difficult things that you don't want to do, you build those muscles, right? You build grit. And so the first thing in order to stay motivated is ask yourself why. You know, as our recent podcast episode with Simon Sinek, he wrote the book Start With Why, is ask yourself, why must I do this? And you ask yourself that and come up with reasons, because remember this, reasons Reap results. Reasons reap results. The second key to sustainable motivation, once you have a purpose, you tap that purpose again by asking the question, why do I want to remember the person's name? Well, you know, why do I want to read this book? What are all the benefits I'll get out of it? Also, what's the pain I will receive if I do not do that? And you feel that, you allow yourself to really imagine it, see it, feel it. And let that— those signals direct your behavior. Now, specifically, the second part of motivation, once you have a reason to do something, the second thing I'm thinking about is the behavior itself. A lot of people are— they psych themselves out. They get unmotivated because they are picturing something they have to do, and it's either something that's not clear. Or it's overwhelming. And I could imagine right now you have a project that's been sitting in your mind for an inordinate amount of time. It's taking energy out of your body, your brain, which is obviously part of your body. It's taking energy out of your life and your day. And it's occupying all that because it's not either clear— going back to 20/20 vision— Or it looks overwhelming. And so the second part of motivation for me is once you have a reason to get the result, you have a purpose for doing that activity, so you have that sustainable motivation, you have to figure out that activity and you need to break it down. When you take a giant, right, we've heard this phrase that inch by inch it's a cinch, yard by yard it's way too hard, and you have to be able to Make it into something that's bite-sized. Super small, simple steps. And the question you want to ask yourself is, what is the smallest thing I could do to be able to make progress and advance to reach that objective, that goal? So maybe it's something like working out. What's the smallest step you could take right now to be able to get your exercise in? Maybe it's something simple like putting on your running shoes. Maybe it's something simple like stepping out the door, walking into the gym. Maybe it's doing one jumping jack. What's the smallest incremental thing that you can do to be able to do it? Because again, it comes back when we talk about the power of motivation. Motivation truly is energy. When you have a purpose for something, you bring life to it. When you break it down into small steps that require very little energy, you could do a little bit, and little by little, a little becomes a lot. So the second tip on how to sustain your motivation through the new year is to break things down into the smallest, smallest part. And we're more likely— something called the Zeigarnik effect. There's a psychologist in Europe, her last name was Zeigarnik. She would notice that the waitstaff at a cafe would remember everyone's order until they were delivered. And once that order was delivered, then the person, the waitstaff would forget about it. But the mind doesn't like open loops. So one of the benefits of starting something, anything, anywhere, is you're more likely to follow through because your mind doesn't like to have that open. All right. First step is to find a reason to do the activity. The second thing to do is to chunk that activity into a small, clear piece that's very doable. You cannot fail at it at all. And what that gives you is clarity, and it makes it less confusing and overwhelming because someone who is confused, they do nothing. All right. So once you have a purpose, You're asking yourself why, all the benefits, all the pain, who's counting on you to follow through on this thing. You feel it. The second thing, you break it down into the smallest part, right? If it's flossing your teeth, don't think about flossing all your teeth. Floss one tooth. If it's reading a book a week, like many of you in our Kwik Reading Program do, maybe you're not thinking about 45 minutes a day to get through that book in one week. Maybe you're thinking about, I'm just going to read one sentence or one word that will get you there. Because you're not going to stop at one word. You're going to go to 2 words, 3 words, because little by little, a little becomes a lot. And then finally, once you have the purpose, you ask yourself why, then you break it down into small, super simple steps. The 3rd thing you need that keeps you motivated is you need energy. Because think about it, you could have a reason. I could have a reason to get up and take that ice bath. I could even break it down to the smallest simple step. But if I am really, really tired because I didn't sleep or I'm jet-lagged or I ate a really suboptimal meal, I don't have energy to work out. I don't have the energy to read. I don't have the energy to do the things. To be motivated to do the things I want to do, my motive for taking action, your motivation. So what gives you energy? Well, we talk about this a lot. We talk about mental energy, we talk about the best foods, right? Good brain foods, avocado, blueberries, right? Many of you have memorized this list. Broccoli, olive oil, and so on. Dark chocolate is always one of our favorites, but the foods we eat matter, especially for your gray matter. So there's certain foods that give you energy. There's certain foods that deplete energy from your system. What else gives you energy is positive thoughts. We know that killing ants, automatic negative thoughts— this term we got from our friend Dr. Daniel Amen— negative thoughts sap your energy, right? When you're always looking at what's wrong and you always dwell on the negative, it takes more energy and to look at things in a focused way that gives you opportunity, that gives you a level of aspiration to be able to— something to motivate you too. So another thing you can do besides the food you eat and the thoughts that you think, number 3, is physical exercise. We know people who move, movement gives you energy, right? Because your physiology affects your psychology. It helps you be motivated. Another thing, supplementation. Some people might be lacking certain B vitamins, for example, that, that could potentially give them some energy because of their diet. Another thing that helps me with, with my energy levels is the people I spend time with. Do you have a person in your life, maybe a family member or friend, and you classify them as kind of a battery who's not exactly person. Some people come with batteries, but some people are like an energy vampire. They steal your energy. So you could be doing all of this and spend time with somebody that just takes your energy, and it's really hard to be motivated when, when you lack that energy. That person's kind of siphoning off your energy. Another thing that keeps you energized and motivated is just keeping a clean environment. Some people are Again, not motivated because their environment doesn't promote them to have clarity. When you clean your environment, you have clarity of thought, and that clarity leads to clear thinking. And when it's confused and messy, people generally aren't as motivated or as driven. Number 7 for optimizing your energy so you have energy to be motivated is Number 7 is sleep, and that's kind of a no-brainer. We know when you sleep is when you recover, you repair, you replenish. And so some people cannot be motivated just because they're tired all the time. So maximize and optimize your sleep. We've done plenty of episodes on that. Number 8 is protect your body, protect your brain from things that could steal your energy. When I'm thinking about that, I'm thinking about environmental toxins. Environmental things. I'm thinking about physical trauma. When you get injured, that it takes energy to be able to heal. So this is to protect yourself. We would also say protecting yourself from episodes we've done about the invisible supervillains in our environment, the quality of light and the quality of air and so on. And 9 and 10, to boost your energy. Is to keep your brain active because your brain is like a muscle. It operates more like a muscle than it does— obviously it's an organ, but it's use it or lose it. And some people's brain, they're not using it as often as they once did, maybe back in school or maybe when they were working before they retired, and they maybe metaphorically have flabby mental muscles. And you want to keep mentally fit, so learning new things will allow you to do that. And it's not like you learn new things and it fills up your cup. It's actually like a muscle where the more you learn, the stronger you get, the more you can learn. People think when I do these demonstrations and let's say the mental feats and such that, oh wow, I have a lot of stuff in my head. Not the case. It's just you have like more webs, more connections, you could do more things. And then finally, the last thing I would recommend for your energy to to be able to help you have this vitality so you can have this sustainable motivation is manage your stress. One of the things that saps our energy, you know, every day or this upcoming decade is stress, anxiety. And so many of us are in this fight or flight mode where it's like a saber-toothed tiger is attacking us when it's really a paper that's due or you have to give a presentation. But that stress takes a lot of energy. Fear takes up a lot of energy. We know chronic stress, it shrinks your brain. And one of the best ways of getting out of stress, out of fight or flight, is just deep conscious breathing. So just to remind you, tell your body that you're safe, and then your physiology will respond accordingly. So again, I want you to be motivated, Motivated 2020, to be able to, uh, to optimize your learning, optimize your life. The 3 keys for motivation in my mind, to keep it super, super simple: to be motivated for action, it requires like a purpose. You're not doing just random action, you're getting back to the reasons why, both positive of what you will receive from it and negative, the penalty you will pay if you do not do That thing. And the second thing, once you tap that purpose, is to break that activity down to the smallest simple step. Really, people are overthinking things. Thinking is good. Overthinking and wanting to be perfect is not good because it impedes progress. And so the goal is little by little, a little becomes a lot. But start somewhere, anywhere. That gives you clarity. That makes it so simple because it removes requires less energy. And then finally, boost your energy. We're using those 10 things that I just talked about, everything from diet and exercise, sleep, stress management, your peers, the people that give you energy and not take away your energy. Really, this is about energy management. What we're talking about— purpose gives you energy, right? Breaking things into little pieces, you know, requires very little It allows you to build momentum, hit those lead dominoes. And finally, the third thing is give yourself energy, because energy ultimately is not something you have, just like focus is not something you have, just like a memory is not something you have. These are all things that you do. So you don't have focus, you do focus. You don't have motivation, you do motivation. And it requires those 3 simple things. All right, so I hope that's very useful for you in this show. Again, this is a live Instagram, but I think I'm gonna turn this into an episode for 2020. I know there's a little bit of white noise where I'm at right now, but I wanted to share this simple thing with you. In 2020, I'm very excited because my book comes out in a handful of months, so I'm very, very excited about it. It is like my life's work. All right. everything that I've been— for over, uh, 2 and a half decades. And to stay connected with me, we're also excited to announce a brand new phone number that I created, a dedicated text line where you get direct access to me. I respond right from my phone, and you could text me at this number, ask me your burning questions, or even just say hi. And about once a week, I'll send you an insight That will help you along your journey. And what's the journey? I think we're all on this journey to be able to realize, to be able to reveal our fullest potential. The number is 310, and this number also is in my social media, on Instagram and Twitter and such. 310-299-9362. That's 310-299-9362. 9299-9362. Text me hello. You'll get— the first message you'll get from me is an autoresponder back just to confirm, and everything else will be from me. So I'll try to reply to a good 5 or 10 a day. And ask me anything, and certain things I'll actually turn into a podcast. And I'd love to say hello. So I hope you have happy holidays. I'll leave you with this. When we're talking about energy and food, most people are so concerned about the food they eat between Christmas and New Year's. And I really think you need to be— those people be more concerned about the food that you eat between New Year's and Christmas, because food you eat matters, especially. For your gray matter. I'll see you in our next episode. Thank you for everybody tuning in on Instagram and Facebook. Make sure you turn on notifications so you get alerted for when we do this again. And I wish your days and this decade be full of lots of life, lots of laughter, lots of love, and always lots of learning. Take care, my friend.