Guest Post: JFoYo Health

One of the hats I wear as a personal trainer is that of "Motivator." It's my job to keep my clients pumped about exercise and positive about their ability to reach their goals. But I can only spend so much time with them in a given week, which means it's ultimately up to them to be the motivation they need to succeed. But life, man...life has a way of killing motivation sometimes which is why I can't wait for you to read Jennifer's post. She's a beacon of positivity on her website, JFoYo Health. 
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Motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an organism to act toward a desired goal and elicits, controls and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. Motivation involves positive thinking and for most of us average human beings, it's hard. We let our daily life stresses hold our not-so-great moods over our heads. Those bad vibes can then trickle into the way we view ourselves. We may look into the mirror and start picking at every little thing WE think is wrong (arms, hips, derriere, etc...) and then say to ourselves, "I will never have a body like that" while looking at Vogue. 

Source: fashiongonerogue.com via Eduardo on Pinterest

Well, for on thing, that cover was probably air brushed.

I know that it's easier said than done to bulldoze those WRONG thoughts out the window. Where I am today, mentally, is a place I didn't think was possible for me to be. I was such a negative thinker. And thinking like that caused my behavior to be horrible. I did not like who I was. I just accepted it. I thought it was normal.

Around the time that I had my "Aha" moment, I started to repeatedly tell myself that I was a great person...that I could do whatever I wanted to. At that time, I wanted to lose weight. And this new habit was something I didn't stiff once I started to lose the weight. Instead, I adapted it into every other aspect of my life. By doing that, my motivation grew. My self confidence grew. My view of my own self worth grew. I was slowly becoming different person.

When you are becoming a "motivated" person, it doesn't mean that things won't bother you anymore, but you will handle them differently. For example, not all people are supportive. This is usually because they don't understand what you are doing, are jealous or are just plain mean enough to pop your bubble. But with your new frame of mind, they might only be able to put a small leak in it that you will patch up because you'll remember that you are smart, kind, beautiful and special.

Staying positive through a setback is hard, but you need to remember that you're only human and it isn't the end-all. Take the setback and use it against itself. Turn it into motivation. For example, instead of having one goal, set smaller and more frequent goals. Still keep that larger main goal for the end, but let those small goals boost your mood. You will notice more results. You will see changes you might not have seen if you had just set that larger goal. This type of progress was a big motivator for me.

Every little thing that changed on my body or every 1/4 of a mile further I could run was motivational progress. All these changes were making me a happier person. I was really starting to see me for me. No matter my size or weight, I had become a happy, confident, strong (both mentally and physically) woman. And at some point in my journey, I had become more than just a self motivator. I was helping others get motivated. Knowing I was helping others had become so rewarding.

If getting healthy and getting in shape was easy, everyone would do it. There would be no need for motivation and inspiration. It's easy to give up when the going gets tough.

But it's so worth it to keep moving forward because I promise you that you'll love the person you become. So remember this:

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Question: What motivates you?