How many times have you awoken with the alarm shouting in your ear, its dark outside, it’s Monday morning, it was such a fun weekend and you have yet another 5 days of work ahead of you and its not even pay day. It happens to us all. Self motivation is one of the most difficult things to accomplish. The alarm you can do nothing about, you usually have to be in work at a set time or you have hopefully disciplined yourself to start working at a certain time.

Lets start with the body. It’s your whole being and you have to make it work for you. It requires respect and time. Exercise is key to long life and well being; go to the gym, do your thing, take an invigorating shower to prepare yourself for the day. Eat breakfast (sitting down) allow time, some don’t but you must if you are not to snack so, make yourself eat healthily – porridge fruit and yoghurt is a good healthy start and works. STOP work at lunchtime, go out, arrange to meet up with colleagues, friends and chatter (having a moan is quite therapeutic!) Go home at a respectable time – working late is rubbish, your mind can only absorb so much before it becomes saturated and inefficient. Plan an evening meal, cook it yourself and if you say – ‘I don’t cook’ then get yourself one of thousands of excellent cook books and learn. It’s great fun and makes shopping much more interesting. Make a list! Invite friends and prepare supper on a Friday night and crack a bottle of wine at home with folk you want to be with. Boozing in the pub may be the social thing to do but you need time for yourself and those you care about. Healthy eating is a healthy mind.

Then there is the mind. You simply must have a focus for the day/week, clear objectives with fun breaks built in so on Friday/Sunday night write up the work plan for next week. Your mind will only work really efficiently for about 45 minutes at a time without a rest; some go for a smoke which is pretty unhealthy but it forces that brain rest. Stand up, move about, get some fresh air, have a coffee whatever floats your boat. Have triggers, per day, per week, per month, plan ahead. There are natural ones such as picking up the children from school, half term holidays, plan nice things. Go for a long walk or run tackle one of those challenges such as Walk the Wight; we don’t all have to run a marathon but, if you can tackle a challenge then, build the training into your weekly routine. Just do it, stop thinking about it and if the challenge seems too big then make it smaller or the walk shorter but do it.   Ellen McArthur had ‘just do it’ written on her sails (in French) when she smashed the single handed round the world yacht race; a constant visual reminder of what she was determined to achieve.

Healthy body is a healthy mind and planned motivation will get you results. Good luck!