How To Get Mentally Fit & Motivated Disclaimer: Note as always when dealing with health-related issues, seek the advice of your healthcare provider or family doctor for your own individual needs. This information is for educational purposes only.
Introduction Experts tell us that mental illness shouldn t be taken lightly. In fact, mental illness affects adults and children in strikingly large numbers. Consider the following facts below and then read on to see how you can help your family, your friends and others you care about and especially yourself get better mentally fit and motivated to tackle life s challenges. Studies show that: Over 57 million people suffer from some type of mental illness, a leading cause of disability in the United States today for people aged 18 to 44 years. Mental illness and suicide make up some 15 percent of the burden of disease in developed countries such as the United States. Although children s cases of mental illness are not recorded and tracked as well as those of adults, still some 20 percent suffer from some type of mental illness, nearly 9 percent of which is rated as severe. To help tackle many of life s mental challenges, getting mentally fit and motivated can work wonders. And to help you a little in both areas, here are some helpful tips. Get Mentally Fit Consider the words of top motivational gurus worldwide, If you think you can, you re right. If you think you can t, you re right. And you ll discover that your actual physical mental health and your attitude have a lot to do with your peak mental health abilities. So begin with two things: 1. Having an untreated mental health disorder or other illness, can inhibit your thinking processes and abilities. So get a check up with your healthcare provider to see if you need any special health treatments like medication for clinical depression or adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or other disorder or illness. Dealing with mental health issues is nothing to be ashamed of at all. And there are lots of new treatments out today. So take care of yourself; you are your own best friend so just do it, today, and get on a healthier, happier road to success. Have a thorough check up. 2. Begin to get mentally fit with a positive, healthy mindset. What happens is that you ve been creating and replaying messages in your mind since you were born. And many are negative, based upon what you felt was reflected from adults that you were bad, weren t ever going to accomplish anything, etc. So you need to continually record and play some positive messages over those old negative messages to push past and stay well beyond - all that junk. Know that just as old habits took time to develop and often take time to get rid of, like that negative stinkin thinkin as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar calls it, new habits take time to develop and take over, too.
Motivational Tools Begin by gathering motivational tools and other aids from your public library and online; motivational aids like cassettes, selections from books, magazine, newspaper and online articles, famous quotes, videos, MP3 files, yoga, relaxation and meditation aids and tools, journaling, subliminal aids, etc. to help you with the different areas of focus in your life. The areas could be: business, family life, financial anything. Note that many motivational and inspirational tools cover wide ranges of topics; however, some do have a more narrow focus to target more specific needs. So gather what you think you need for now, and grow a list for using later. Then build regular use of them into your daily life as follows: - Start each morning with at least 10-15 minutes of time using a motivation tool. This investment in your self can help dramatically over time. So start today. - Take short Mental Health breaks throughout the day using one of your motivational tools each time. - End each day by calming yourself down and wrapping up your day. Journaling works best, writing about what worked well and what didn t, so that you can plan better for tomorrow. Then maybe end with a short, relaxing inspirational meditation. Forks in the Road As you continue with your mental health and motivational improvement path to success, note that you can and probably will at different times, run into forks in your road. This is when you will need to change the focus of your motivational aids as needed. For example, let s say you are floundering in your business focus, so you begin listening to an audio series on entrepreneurs and their successes. At first, you get pumped up, motivated to keep trying and gather a bunch of new ideas. However, after a week or even more of these recordings, you start to get confused, even overwhelmed, because you are actually putting too much input into your noodle, information-overload on the brain circuits. So stop that series, and listen to something more soothing to calm you down and ground you for awhile. Then go back and find a series on business planning, prioritizing and establishing goals and deadlines with the info you already have. Get a coach or mentor for help as needed, too. No need to go it alone.
Get Motivated Getting and staying motivated are two different things that can make or break your new positive mental health and abilities success goals. So here are some helpful tips for you. 1. Start by setting specific goals for what you want to achieve with your new habits and listing them in a notebook just for this purpose. Some people map out their plans to get a more visual instead of mental look. And they target each important area of their lives. Here s an example: Business Personal Life Financial l l l l l - Pay off my debts and save for retirement l - Improve quality of life by working less, getting out more l - Increase Moonlighting Work to earn more income - Increase Skills Online to keep up with technology used in my areas of interest (like software, web building)- as updated come out. Goals are an excellent way to stay motivated. Research shows that setting both short and long term goals is one of the most motivating things you can do. Realistic and Measurable 2. Next research your goals above and determine how to make each one realistic and measurable. Then plan accordingly. For example, it s not realistic to plan to jump from earning $100 a month for 5 years to earning $100,000 per month over night. So find out what IS reasonable to expect each month, and then chart it out in your notebook. Set deadlines so that you ll know if and when you reach your goals. 3. See what is working and what isn t as deadlines approach, and adjust accordingly by getting help from someone or from other resources. You may need to refer to industry publications for more specific tools you may need to reach your business goals, for example. So revise your plans as needed and keep forging ahead. Stay Motivated Here are some tips to stay motivated so that you reach your goals. A) Get a coach or mentor to help make your accountable on a regular basis. B) Stick with it by teaming up with a buddy, partner or friend. C) Commit and stick to your plans. D) Help someone else - -this helps you, too. E) Teach someone else as you are doing it yourself. F) Attitude adjustments make them as needed. You must persevere and Do IT! G) Join a self-help group. H) Start a self-help group!
Body and Mind One last but very important are to focus on to get mentally fit and motivated is your body. Your body works one-on-one with your mind. So get physically fit, too. Tips: 1) Check with your healthcare provider before starting any new fitness plan. 2) Research costs of local gyms and health clubs, equipment to work out in your home, for trainer help and materials, etc. before jumping in to buy stuff that s not in your budget. The Internet and public library both offer plenty of aids and helpful articles. So start there. 3) And just like with mental health planning and developing of positive habits, so the same with your fitness and body plans. Research and write out concrete, realistic goals, steps to achieve them and measure their results and revise as needed, Then go! So get your mind and body in tune, and get fit and motivated. This healthy powerful mind-and-body duo can definitely help you achieve your goals.