Top Ten Thursday - Motivation

Welcome to Top Ten Thursday!

After celebrating Valentine's Day, probably enjoying lots of good food and (sparkling) wine last week, let's get back to work today! What? You're low on

Motivation?

I know, me, too, it's a bitch. I struggle finding motivation for many things. It took until mid-February for me to put away all the Christmas decoration! 

Today I'm supposed to work out, there is a pile of laundry, I still haven't started dinner much less shopped or prepped for it... As I'm writing this I'm thinking I should combine those. Doing laundry is part of the workout, and I should make it a healthy dinner so I don't have to work out too much, hahaha!

I turned to YouTube for help, and I came across two of Kalyn Nicholson's videos that I liked and used:  How to get motivated and 5 Procrastination Hacks because let's be honest, procrastination is motivation's worst enemy, amIright?

Let's see what she has to say:

Get up earlier - ugggghhh, really? Do I have to? (I'm dropping this one. After all we just need a list of ten)

1. Listen to upbeat music. Totally agree. I like Bad Romance in the kitchen. Lady Gaga provides my veggie chopping soundtrack! I recently borrowed an old Status Quo album from the library. Cross that Bridge has become my motivational song while driving to the gym!
2. Clean your space to allow for a less cluttered mind. Now if only I could find the motivation to clean up... She's right, though. Less stuff sitting around -> less distraction -> more focus on what's important!
3. Plan out your daily, weekly and monthly goals - more about that below.
4. Be active, make plans with friends! Take your cute ass out the door. I don't know about cute, but yeah, let's go out there!
5. If you work from home, don't bury yourself there, go and work at Starbucks (gotta love that one!)
6. Treat yourself to something that supports your goal (in my case that'd be pink workout gear!)
7. Make a to do list - take your goals and projects she's talking about in #3 and break them down into actual activities and small, doable tasks, prioritize!
8. Just start, don't (over)think. On the count of 3, just do it!!! Gain momentum! (I like that one!) I also read about the 10 minute trick. If you need to do something that seems hard and time consuming, promise yourself to just do 10 minutes. At the very least you got done a little bit, best case scenario, once you've overcome that hard starting phase, you end up getting it all done!
9. Don't be too hard on yourself, be kind! Believe in yourself.
10. Ask yourself why you want to do it? What are you gaining from it?

Bonus hack, but oh so important: be realistic! Don't expect perfection, just get it done! 
Or in my case (see picture below) GET SHIT DONE!

This is hard for me because in my mind I either do it right or not at all. I realize though that oftentimes this is stopping me from getting started at all. 

Writing down goals and tasks is tedious for me, so nice notebooks, pads or apps help me! 
I don't only use them for to do stuff but mostly for ideas for my blog or upcoming activities / events. I stick schedules and maps in there for example. 

Your turn now: what are things that you do that help you to get going? Leave a comment or link up your post using the link-tool.

What's up next Thursday, March 2nd? I will to do the following, and I'd love for you to join in:

Create a vision board (physically on a board or a piece of paper or simply in a collage on your computer, or ten individual pictures or descriptions) and present the top ten featured things in your blog post! Can't wait for that one! Sign up here.

The week after, March 9 let's list 10 unusual or crazy things we've done in our lives. Like stayed at a hotel in your own town, baked Christmas cookies in June or left rain gear at home despite 100% chance of precipitation! Here's the sign up.