After reading some recent threads I thought I'd post this. I've posted this several times elsewhere on 3FC and find it very helpful, as 'motivation' is a slippery little devil.
"Motivation, as in being all rah-rah excited, doesn't happen to anybody, or if it does, it's fleeting. I'm not motivated to workout. I do it both because it needs to be done and because I'm emotionally invested in it. Very much like bathing and brushing my teeth. I may not always enjoy the process or the time it takes, but I do it at the start of every day because it makes me feel good about myself and gives me confidence. I don't want to be all scary and stinky and have people run from me. :-) However, at no point do I feel "motivated" to haul myself out of bed in the morning and get in the shower. I just do it and don't entertain the idea that I might not. I'm someone who bathes. You can be someone who exercises. It's just that matter-of-fact.
In the beginning, until your cruise control kicks in, you can focus on the emotional investment part of it. Find a dream or aspiration that you want to make real and then spend as much time as possible visualizing your new life. How will it feel? What will you look like? What will you wear? What will people say? What will you do? What will you eat? What will your day be like? That's powerful stuff because it creates the mental shift necessary to pull off just about anything. Without the mental shift, you can make as many lame-*** attempts as you want, but nothing will ever stick. Your mind has to change before your body can. You have to know that this new reality is possible, and you'll know it's possible because you'll see it every day in your head."
This is from skwigg's blog. Great stuff at her blog, check it out.http://skwigg.tripod.com