Take off the masks, please

And no im not talking about the flimsy, physical masks people have been wearing for the last couple of years.

Im referring to the masks you wear to hide who you truly are.

The more that you decide to act how others act, be what you think others want you to be and ignore the truth of who YOU want to be – the more you confirm the belief that who you are is not enough or loveable.

And so the roundabout of not being your true soul continues.

Don’t do this.

If you lose people when you start to drop the masks then let them go.

They weren’t there for the true you.

They were there for the performance you put on.

And hey it’s probably the best damned performance of your life.

But don’t you want to rest?

Don’t you want to take off the masks and just be the human you are?

Don’t you want to KNOW the people in your life are choosing to be there and it’s BECAUSE of the truth you share?

Don’t you want to know you are safe to share all of you – the random outbursts, the shitty triggers, the ugly crying, the excited jumping up and down, the random car karaoke, whatever it is that lights you up, don’t you want to feel safe to share all of that?

I don’t want to love the performance of who you think you need to be, and I won’t.

I want to love the truth. However that looks for you.

Take off the masks. Please.

One way to begin to do this is with motivational thoughts.

What do motivational thoughts do?

They help you take action.

This isn’t about positive thinking or motivating quotes. Those have their (small) place in shaping your attitude and thinking. However, what motivates each of us is unique, so you need to have your own thoughts – those which are most effective at getting you going.

And this isn’t going to happen if you are always trying to be what everyone else is being!

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Albert Einstein

Making motivational thoughts of your own means experimenting with a good thought until you find a way to use it in your own recipe for motivation.

Suppose, for example, you’re in a difficult situation and don’t feel like dealing with it. As you sit there, you play around with the idea of opportunity coming from difficulty. Fortunately, you discover that it pulls you out of your slump to think about yourself in the future, explaining to a friend how you turned the difficult situation to your advantage.

This is how you create your own motivational thoughts. Now, it might be more motivating if you imagine yourself being interviewed someday about how you overcame this difficult time. The thoughts that work for you are the thoughts you need to be thinking.

You need to learn your motivations.

Experiment and get to know how your mind works.

I find that beyond just thinking a thought, if I explain it to someone, I get excited.

That is my own self-motivation recipe.

When I feel unmotivated about writing, for example, I explain an idea I have for a blog to my husband. By the time I am done, I’m very motivated to write.

You can get creative in your motivational experiments.

Maybe thinking about being poor makes you get up and get to work. If so, that is a great motivational thought.

If visual thoughts are more motivating than mental conversations, then use those. See pictures in your head that get you going. Perhaps when people say you can’t do something, you do whatever it takes to prove them wrong. Then it might be motivational to think about them saying you can’t.

When there is a truly uninspiring task you have to do, try promising yourself a reward for completion – make it one that really means something to you. Keep that thought in your mind to keep yourself motivated. A trip to the beach and even a simple bowl of ice cream may be some of your more powerful motivational thoughts.

When I decided to do sober 2019 and makeup free 2019 I decided to have a consequence for if I failed. That consequence was that I would have to shave my head. You can bet I made sure I stuck to my goals that year!

So take off the masks and find your own way to motivate yourself and your life will truly take a leap forward.

Xo S