Look Around You

     Motivation! One of my favorite topics to discuss about with clients and with friends. What would be the number one thing that motivates YOU? Truly and carefully think about it. Meaning what comes to mind the moment you feel defeated, but brings you back to your feet? Maybe its family? A friend? Or your dream career? What is it? If you don’t have anything that’s fine. Not all people can say they have something to keep them going when they are defeated. What I can say is, motivation starts with your environment and the people around you. Mostly speaking the friends around you.

     When someone asks you who your friends are, who comes to mind? From that amount, how many of those would you consider to be the ones that push you and always have nothing but a great time with you? If the number stayed the same, congratulations. It’s safe to say you have found your true friends and you really don’t need to read much more.  If you couldn’t find one person, then you should do a reality check and get rid of the negative people in your life. Or maybe consider changing your environment. We always hear the saying, “Friends come and go, but family is forever”, anytime an argument happens between friends. Arguments and disagreements can cause tension in relationships, and this ultimately leads to hurt feelings. The “friends” that constantly bring nothing but tension, stress, and mentally and/or emotionally drain you. I know this from seeing and hearing it from clients. I have and had the privilege to work with countless clients who came to the gym looking to get in shape because they are tired of feeling sad and are unhappy with their lives. Usually unhappiness and negative emotions that are a result of a stressful job, bad relationship with a significant other, death, or family problems. By working out, they are looking to find a way to better their health and find their stress reliever.

     Every client walks in with the same expectation, to see physical change. What they are not realizing is with change they are not only going to see physical change, but also mental and a lot of positive emotional change. As a self-defense mechanism, most clients tend to be shy and stray away from people because they are not confident with themselves. What they are not realizing is that everyone who they think is or could be judging is actually doing the same thing as them, feeling shy and nervous. By saying a simple ‘Hello” and smile, you begin to create a new positive atmosphere around you because you are beginning to break away from that shyness that leads to meeting new people. People who could in fact share the same, or if not slightly different story on why they started working out. Once they see that they are not the only ones who have felt defeated, they begin to form a mutual friendship. The type of friendship that motivates one another to keep pushing and looks out for you. A friendship that gives you someone to help you on your journey to a better you.

     It doesn’t have to only happen in the gym. I used my clients because they are an example on how changing your environment leads to making the right friends and helps you find the positive motivation that you have been looking for. It can happen in anyplace. Just make sure to choose a place that you find to give you the happiness that you seek. Eventually the positive people that belong in your life as well as the right motivation will begin to fall in place. Trust me, it feels great to have 5 loyal, motivating friends than to have 25 “come and go” friends.

“Once you learn how to be happy, you won’t tolerate being around people who make you feel anything less”