Hot and Cold water Motivation

Hot and Cold Water Motivation

Do you know the difference? Hot water motivation is like listening to a motivational speaker. As the speakers words rain down upon us, we "warm" to the idea of getting out there and doing whatever it takes to reaching our goals.
The longer we listen, the warmer we get and it feels good to think about succeeding as we bask in the words. Just like a hot shower though, as soon as the water (words) is turned off, we begin to cool off. Cold reality sets in and the longer period of time since the warm shower of words, the cooler we are until what we felt becomes just a memory.
(Yeah, I was really fired up about starting that new diet today, but when those old hunger pains set in, I felt like I would be sick if I didn't eat something with carbs to soothe me)
Hot water motivation is also known as external motivation since it comes from the outside. Something we see or hear gets us excited about what we want to achieve.

Cold water motivation is almost the opposite. It is cold reality and we plain don't like to be there. Sometimes we escape cold reality for a time by taking a hot water motivation. Seeing someone your age, your sex, that used to be about as overweight as you are but lost it, is a great external motivation. Hot water is the way to get motivated, but cold water or internal motivation is what's need for lasting through reality.
You must take action. Taking action is the only way to make progress, overcome obstacles, and reach your goals. Taking action to overcome, to make changes in your life, gives you stronger and gives you mastery over self. This is internal motivation and will last and last as long as you keep taking positive actions in the directions of your goals. Internal fire within(motivation) doesn't change temperature with cold reality. It's ironic that taking action motivates your brain to take positive action to overcome obstacles far better than any motivational speech can do.
If you ever lifted weights, you know exactly what I mean. Taking action to overcome the obstacle or resistance makes the muscle (and you) stronger. It warms you up. You have bettered yourself and the brain records each victory. When you give in and weaken, your brain records the loss. Faced with obstacles, the brain prepares to do what you have normally been doing. (Victory or Loss) Overcome! The more you overcome the easier it gets so that when you get down, (it happens to everyone) your brain doesn't say, I've always given up at this point. It will say, "Huh! This isn't anything new. I've been down before and I'll get right back up again."
There's nothing wrong with falling in the mud. Get up and don't wallow around in failure. You went off your diet or the wagon or you're training regimen? Start right back in. Don't wait for some special event. Do it now! Every journey begins with a single step, but only a fool waits for every single light to be green along the way.