Your Motivation Isn't MIA. It's Waiting for You to Move.

This week, I started counting steps to increase my daily movement via my new (second hand and purple for the win) fitness tracker, and I haven't looked back.

Over the recent busy season, I had neglected my fitness, and I had to admit that I was waiting for the feeling of Get Up and Go before I Got Up and Went.

But a funny thing happened when I turned the story in my head upside down. I started small and the motivation to continue began to grow. As I've slowly increased my daily step count, I'm breathing deeper, feeling good about my progress, and noticing small changes in flexibility.

That's right folks. Motivation FOLLOWS movement.

We've probably all thought at some point that we need to feel motivated before we can make positive changes in our lives, but the research tells a different story. Behavioural psychology and neuroscience consistently show that motivation follows action, not the other way around.

Small, intentional behaviours kick off our brain's reward system, especially the dopamine pathways that reinforce a behaviour and increase our likelihood of repeating it again and again. In simple terms, we don't act because we feel motivated, we feel motivated because we act!

🔬 Science Spot: Behavioural Activation, developed in the 70s by clinical psychologist Peter Lewinsohn, is built on the idea that action can create motivation, especially when you're feeling stuck in a rut. The principle is simple - action creates feedback, feedback creates reinforcement and reinforcement builds motivation.

Your motivation isn't missing in action.
It's hiding behind a tree waiting for you to walk past so it can join you. It's sitting in the file of the first chapter of your book, waiting to write with you. It's lurking around the creative project, the new innovation for your business, the fresh start for your relationship, ready to spur you on once you take the first steps.

For me, the catalyst was quite literally movement. Yours might be equally physical, or more conceptual: opening the document, picking up the paintbrush, sending the email. The action doesn't have to be impressive. It just has to happen first. Movement first. Motivation follows.

One Degree of Change. What's the one small thing you've been waiting to feel ready for? What if you just started, without the feeling, and let the feeling follow? Pick one thing. Make it small. Go first.

Aroha nui.

Julia Grace | Be Kind to Your Mind

Refs: Lewinsohn, P.M. (1970s) — Behavioural Activation, originally developed as treatment for depression. Behavioural psychology and neuroscience: motivation follows action, not the other way around (dopamine pathways, reward system reinforcement)