Our Challenge to You: Do What It Takes

We’ve completed a week of our 24-Day Self-Care Challenge, and I hope the ideas we’ve shared each day have helped “plant the seed” of self-growth for your mind, body, and spirit. The idea behind this challenge is to promote self-care, self-love, and personal growth through simple and accessible actions that will help reduce everyday stressors and provide a boost for your ongoing journey to a healthier you.
 
It’s also a new month, and our curriculum theme for July is “You Have the Power to GROW.” This theme and our topic for the week, self-discipline and motivation, fit nicely with the Self-Care Challenge. All three recognize that most people want to become better versions of themselves, but this is not an easy task. It involves hard work, a long-term commitment, and some risk. We also may need some assistance at times to keep our progress going.
 
Self-discipline and motivation are two important components of a growth mindset. Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do things that you know you should do when you don’t want to do them. It’s about identifying “what to do” and then actually doing it. This is action-oriented behavioral management that helps us get where we want to go, and it typically takes practice to apply self-discipline consistently.
 
Motivation is our willingness and excitement to do those things that are necessary to achieve a goal. It also includes the understanding of “why” we want and need to do something. Our motivation can be strong when we focus on the goal we have in mind, but it also can be short-lived. Our willingness and excitement can wane without an occasional boost to keep driving us along.
 
Here are two great resources with more discussion and tips on these subjects: Motivation vs Self-Discipline: Which Is the Key to Habit Formation? and Discipline vs Motivation.
 
When we are motivated, we are willing to do what it takes, even if it means we have to experience short-term physical or emotional discomfort in order to meet the long-term goal. This willingness can jump-start our self-discipline, and the positive results from our self-discipline can keep our motivation high.
 
As we say in our hashtag for the Self-Care Challenge, self-care is self-love, and our willingness to pursue self-love is so important for continuing to have a fulfilled and healthy life. Celebrate yourself for your willingness to prioritize YOU!