Seriously though, we are just starting the new year and I can almost guarantee that you’ve already come across about a million and one posts, live videos and e-mails talking to you about your goal setting, your resolutions and how you are going to make THIS year your preverbal B!+c#. 

You’re totally on board (I mean, if you are anything like me, you eat these opportunities up fro breakfast, you LOVE yourself a solid motivational quote that is going to give you enough gusto to get your chores done for the day … this time). 

It won’t be long until those champion voices start to pitter out *shameful* but not yours, not this time. 

If I told you something that isn’t so “motivating”, would you promise to hear me out and to keep reading?

… I’m gonna assume that you said YES because you love me and you are certain that there is at least one gem of wisdom per post, if not a walloping dose of “thank goodness I’m not the only one!” 

Motivation doesn’t last. 

Motivation doesn’t WORK if you are looking to make some serious changes in your life. 

It doesn’t matter if you are hoping to drop those extra pounds (ps, I would TOTALLY appreciate the cheering section and MOTIVATING ladies who are ready to help me walk this journey of releasing … wait for it … 80 odd pounds after this little lady joins us << which is TOTALLY a different post and story and journey … that I will share because this is REAL LIFE …) but seriously, motivation won’t change your marriage, your level of education, your health and fitness. It won’t clean your house, help you purge the excess, it won’t make you a better friend or lover, it just doesn’t work. 

Not long past the moment you find the motivation … remember that post the other day about how I told you that during my pregnancy I’ve been motivated plenty of times to move my butt and get in shape so labour doesn’t kill me and well … as you read above, I need to LOSE 80 lbs to get anywhere near my pre-baby weight … 6 years ago. 

So, what is it?

Habit, discipline, the development of something deeper that will keep you going even when you would rather plop your tuckas on the sofa with a beer and a tray of nachos that you’ve convinced yourself are healthy because you’ve cut up a half a pepper, a heart of romaine and some cherry tomatoes on … I mean, if you are willing to look past the cup of shredded cheese, the marbled Nacho cheese and sour cream and that HUGE dollop of guac you have on the side … I mean, corn chips are a veggie – it’s practically a salad.

You need to do the hard work of building that new “healthier” foundation. And, don’t get me wrong, I am not limiting this to healthy in terms of eating right and exercising. I mean healthier habits as they pertain to growing as a person, to being in your Bible meaningfully, in resolving issues in your marriage, in refining your motherhood, in managing your finances and clawing your way out of debt. I’m talking about trimming the “fat” from your life, establishing routines and triggers that keep you on track.

The HARD fricken’ work that needs to be done in order for you to finally get out of the rut and make changes past that initial moment of motivation. 

It means getting into the mindset that the start of this journey is naturally going to be the hardest part. It will take the most determination, the most MOTIVATION, and the most down and dirty hard work before you gain any sort of momentum … inertia if you will … to get this party started and your results rolling in.

It means tracking your efforts, identifying what it is you need to be doing and what you are trying to accomplish your goals. It means being REAL with the work you are putting in and the results of your efforts. It MEANS being willing to make changes as you go if something is not working as you think it should but NOT quitting just because it isn’t happening as fast as you would like it to. 

The good news is, as hard as it is to lay the foundation and to build into your life the habits that will continue to serve you and your big goals … hard like being a strong man attempting to pull a Bowing 747 … once you start establishing the ground work, once you start building the momentum and seeing the positive changes in your life … it’s builds, it multiplies, it permeates into all sorts of aspects of your everyday – things you didn’t even KNOW you needed to work on. 

It builds momentum and you become an unstoppable force, you have INERTIA baby! You can move mountains when you get inertia, the things that seemed impossible, like that first inch of the Bowing pull, are no longer a matter of concern, you are onto bigger and better things, things motivation couldn’t touch, things only available to those disciplined to chase their dreams with intensity and purpose. 

And that, my friend, is what THIS year is about. 

It is about those baby steps needed to start making something of this life. It’s about one fricken’ exhausted, swollen, MOM foot being placed infant of the other begging the mountain to move, willing the wheels of the plane to roll just a fraction of an inch. 

It’s about finding it in you to come back to this thing day in and day out because you KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt that THIS is WORTH IT. 

And as you do, you will probably need a bit of motivation, on those hard days, on the days where you would really just rather sit down for a week or so with a merlot and your Netflix, where you wish you could just run aways … you may need to quote, the sticky note, the kick in the pants from a friend who cares enough to remind you why you started chasing these dreams. 

But you won’t stay in a place of needing motivation, you will remember that any foundation worth it’s weight in gold was built on hard work, one brick at a time, laid with purpose, checked and double checked for it’s ability to withstand the storm, and you WILL push forward. 

Because you are THAT woman, THAT inspiration, THAT GOOD!