Hi. Let's talk about motivation. If you're feeling unmotivated and in a slump, how do you pick yourself back up? For the past few weeks, I haven't posted as many videos because I haven't felt motivated to create. I'm not sure what it is, but I just lost that spark for a while and I've been struggling to find that again. I just haven't felt like pressing record
and sharing myself or sharing my life as easily as I used to in the past. And that could just be me changing. I just want to be a little bit more private. I appreciate my me time. That's not to say that I've been feeling low
this entire time because I really haven't. I've been doing okay. I think I've just been living my life for me instead of trying to show everything about myself, which is a change from before. And I noticed that lately I found motivation in health and fitness. I'm exploring this topic of motivation because
on one hand, I've been feeling unmotivated to work, but on the other hand, I've found motivation in
taking care of my body and exercising more again.
And I think this is part of one of my goals from the beginning of this year, which was to see what it would be like
if I were to live my life not prioritizing work, but instead prioritizing myself and my wellbeing. Maybe it's okay that I'm not as productive at work, but I'm taking care of myself and my health and my body. That's productive in its own way. I'd like to share my lessons on motivation,
what I've been learning, with you guys. But before I get into that, I do wanna thank BetterHelp for sponsoring this video since motivation is something I've been working with my therapist on. If you think you might be feeling depressed,
stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, BetterHelp is here to help. Through BetterHelp, I've been healing from burnouts
and putting too much pressure on myself. My therapist has helped me understand
my fears and anxieties, and find more calm. BetterHelp offers a network of over 20,000 licensed
therapists who are trained to listen and help you. Just fill out a questionnaire and then you
get matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. You can schedule private video and phone sessions and exchange unlimited messages at your convenience. Everything you share is completely confidential. It's nice to have a safe space to express all of your feelings. What I like about therapy is it helps you
become more aware of deeper emotions and fears that you don't notice in your day to day. You can also request a new therapist at no additional charge anytime. Join the 2,000,000+ people who have taken charge of their mental health with an experienced BetterHelp therapist. If you're interested in trying it out, you can get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/aileen. All right, now I'm down at Togi level and I wanna share three reasons why you're probably
lacking motivation or inspiration in life. Reason #1: fear. If you really take the time to dig at why you are
feeling uninspired or unmotivated, you will find fear. There is some kind of fear that you have deep down that is keeping you from having a zest in life, wanting to go out
and take chances, do something new, do something exciting. I think there's a deep level of fear there. And I didn't realize that about my work, but after I really dug deep, I realized that I have not felt motivated to create because I have this deep fear of failing. I have this deep fear that if I try to create, it's gonna come out bad. And I don't wanna make bad videos.
I wanna make good videos. That fear keeps me from even starting, and then it just becomes a block where you just associate it with “Oh, maybe I'm just uninspired because I can't create.” But what's really there is your fear that you have to face and learn to overcome. Reason #2: disconnected from yourself. And this happens when we get distracted, when we spend too much time on social media or watching TV or maybe just being around people. Maybe it's your environment that is disconnecting you from yourself. You're so focused on what other people are saying or thinking, and you haven't made the time to tune into how you're really feeling and what's really happening with yourself. For me, I noticed I was disconnected from myself and my inner spark, which is what gives me inspiration and motivation, because I had not meditated or journaled in a while. Those are two of my core habits,
ways for me to stay in tune with my intuition. I decided to meditate after not doing it for a couple months, and I had all these ideas and I'm like, “Okay, wow.” I get downloads and I get a lot of ideas when I get quiet with my myself. It's just that I've been so not tuned in with myself. I've just been like checking in with social media, watching TV, just doing all these other things. And it wasn't a lack of inspiration. It was me being blocked from myself and my connection with the Divine, where you may download and get ideas and clarity. So maybe you just need to get quiet and talk to yourself, tune into your intuition, tap into that inner spark because we all have it. It's just that we have been disconnected from it. Reason #3: operating too much in your comfort zone, which is that space of habit, what's safe, what's easy. When you are in the comfort zone for too long, life becomes routine, it becomes mundane. And then, there's not much new energy coming in. There's not much inspiration or motivation. If that's the case, then you have to do something
to get out of your comfort zone. Maybe it's going to a new place, taking a weekend trip, or trying a new activity or hobby. Do something different.
See something new to shake things up. You wanna expose yourself to a new environment. Do something that feels a little scary. Changing your environment and shocking
yourself out of that comfort zone will help you find more energy and motivation in life. Lastly, I have a bonus reason that I'm not quite sure applies to everybody, but it's a possibility. Having a lack of motivation/inspiration could be a redirection. Meaning: you are not feeling that energy and that zest for life for a reason. It means you're not supposed to be continuing that thing or continuing down that path. Maybe it's a sign that this is not right for you and you should do something else. You should maybe pivot, try a new path, or look elsewhere. Maybe like this is a door that closed, so another could open. That's life. Life is always changing. That probably means that our paths are supposed to change as well. Even if you used to love doing a certain thing, maybe you used to be motivated doing a certain thing, it doesn't mean that it'll be that way forever. You losing motivation could mean you're meant to do something new, or maybe you're meant to do that thing in a different way, in a new way that inspires you. We gotta change things up and accept that
change is the only constant in life. “Okay, enough about why we're not motivated. I wanna know how to pick yourself up after a slump.” Let me share some tips on what motivated me
to get back into fitness as an example. Step #1: hit a low point. Not saying you have to hit rock bottom or anything. You just have to hit a point where your self awareness kicks in and you recognize at that point that you are unhappy with your current self
and that you're ready to make a change. Many of us kind of coast along right before this point, a lot of people live in this comfort zone of not at their highest self, but not hitting that low point, not recognizing where they are and that they don't wanna be there. For me, that point was recognizing that
I had gained weight over the past year. I gained maybe 10 pounds and I stopped challenging myself by going to hard workout classes. Pre-pandemic, I was going to pilates, yoga,
all these workout classes that were hard, doing strength training. And for the past year and a half, I've only been walking Togi, maybe doing yoga once in a while. Not saying I wasn't working out at all, but I was just doing easy stuff. I realized that my body was just soft. I was losing all my muscle and thus my metabolism was slowing down. With age, a lot of those things probably added up to weight gain. I recognized that, “Oh my God, I'm not my most fit, best self right now.” I realized that I lost a lot of confidence. I didn't feel like taking pictures. I didn't feel like filming myself. I just didn't feel like my best self. Not saying there was anything wrong with my body or my weight because anyone could look at me and be like, “She's normal. She's fine.” But it was how I felt on the inside knowing that I wasn't at my best. That's the point that made me want to make a change because I'm like, "Okay, if I don't make a change, it's just gonna get worse.” So I need to start being a little more healthy with my fitness and stuff. Step #2: gather knowledge and inspiration. Right after you've hit that point of like, “Wake up. I wanna make a change. I'm ready to make a change.” That's when you start to gather knowledge and inspiration and information in how you can start making a change. Because knowledge is power. You don't know what to do until you go out and you learn. You do a little research. You learn how other people did it. This was the phase where I just started watching
a lot of videos on fitness and weight loss and just researching and taking notes based on
what I was watching and learning. With that information, I can start to make a plan, something that I like, something that works for me, something that feels doable. This is the point where I made a Notion board and I got organized. I just organized all the nutrition, tips, workout ideas and plans, and created my own personal rules for myself—
things that I thought I could stick to. For example, for dinner, half of my plate should be veggies. Healthy things like that. I also made a few different YouTube playlists
for different workout videos depending on my mood. I have a pilates playlist, yoga playlist, dance playlist. I discovered and started doing Korean workout videos, which I really like. The movements are completely different than
what you would find in Western workout videos, which I thought was interesting. I've just been exploring new and different workout videos, adding them all in my workout playlist. I even made a daily playlist for my favorite videos that I want to do daily. Almost daily. I've been working out like six days a week, only for the past two weeks. We'll see if I can keep this up. My point is to make a plan and make it fun. Also, make it flexible because life is always changing. I have to be super flexible with my plans. I never set anything rigid because I just can't. I know myself. I know that I can't keep up with it. Basically you'll give up if your plan is too hard, so make it fit yourself. Step #4: track your progress daily. And this one has been a game changer for me because I haven't been this detailed and consistent with tracking. And it has helped a lot with my level of motivation. I have been using Day One. I talk about this app all the time. I use it to journal my daily life, but I started
a separate health journal in Day One, where I've made this template that lists my mood
for the day, the food I ate, the exercises I did, anything wellness-related that I did, gratitude. I use this template and I just jot down
the different bullet points every single day. I'll add photos of the food that I ate. I've been doing it this entire month. And I've actually been looking forward to doing this at the end of the day. I think it's fun to write my mood in emojis and keep track of this. It's funny that I never did this before, an actual health journal, but it actually makes a difference. It keeps you motivated. It helps you stay consistent. And it's been working so far. Last step: make the time and make it a priority. One thing that I did to keep me motivated
and consistent with exercising every day is to just set this window of time where I would exercise every day. For me, it's evenings. For me, it's after I'm done with work. It's during my unwinding time. That's when I have the time to do workout videos on YouTube. I know a lot of people talk about working out
in the morning and how that's better for you. But for me, it just didn't work for my schedule. I wake up late and then I go to work, right? Instead of trying to fit it into my morning, because if I worked down in the morning, it would
kind of like push everything down in my day. I wouldn't get things done because half of
my daylight is spent working out. I just did what worked for me. I make it work for me. I make the time and I make it a priority. That way it's easy to just know that, “Okay, this is the time I should be working out.
So let me just turn it on—my TV—and start doing it” Essentially, make it a schedule and make it easy
to show up to that schedule. I make things as seamless as possible. I'm already wearing workout clothes hours before I decide to work out. I have my yoga mat laid out. I don't put it away. Because if I put it away, I'm not gonna wanna roll it out again. I just leave everything there to make it easy. All I have to do is click a button. I have my playlist already. I just click play and the videos will play in the right order for me to do. Those were the steps that helped me find motivation
and stay consistent with exercising and taking care of my health. Nothing too crazy. I'm sure you've heard all of these things before, but I had some holes that I didn't do in the past and that's why I failed. All right. Let me know down below what you're struggling to find motivation for. And let me know if you decide to try any of these prompts/tips. Remember there are two parts. The first part was uncovering why you might be
unmotivated, stuck, or uninspired. Maybe all you need is to just be aware of that
and start to release that, right? Then, the second part are my steps that I made to
get motivated in working out again. Maybe those steps will help you, even if it's not for fitness. Even if it's for another category in life, these steps can help you. Most of the time, we're just lacking one of these steps
and that's why we're stuck. Maybe you haven't gone out and researched. Maybe you haven't tried to find inspiration. Or maybe you don't have a plan. Maybe you don't track your progress with
whatever it is you're trying to stay focused on. Give these tips a try and let me know how they go. Sending you so much love. Again, it is totally normal to flow in and out of being motivated in life. That is just life. We don't have to be go-go-go, inspired, and motivated all the time. These moments teach us more about ourselves and life lessons than the moments where we are feeling right about ourselves. There's a lesson in everything. Sending you so much love and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.
