Staying motivated and inspired for the long haul can sometimes feel like an impossible task, yet it is the consistency of your attitude and persistent action that are the true key to success. When you find yourself walking around thinking "God's delays are not His denials" and "good things come to those who wait" you know you are entering the inspiration danger zone. You are beginning to feel that you are not where you wanted to be at a certain point in time and you are wondering why. You are beginning to doubt and doubt is dangerous. Don't freak out, discouragement happens, and it is never something to be ashamed of and neither is doubt. I know there are speakers and writers out there who will tell you they rarely experience either, but I'm not one of them. I'm a human 
The trick to staying on track is to become aware of your early warning signs and to learn how to give yourself a little adjustment to keep on the right track. I know that lure of giving up can be very, very strong at times, so you need to be armed and ready to fight back and fight hard. After all, you are literally fighting for your life.
Let's backtrack a bit to look at why the lure of quitting can be so very strong even in people committed to their goals and dreams. In my early thirties I decided to take up running. I wanted to challenge myself physically and I figured that if I could survive one of my husband's insane extreme-spin classes, I could run a mile or two! Being the bookworm that I am, I immediately began reading so that I wouldn't start out wrong and end up hurting myself. So armed with new running shoes, moisture wicking shorts and a steel-belted sports bra, that I had to special-order online, I was ready to go. Little by little I added time and distance to my runs and, while I was feeling really great about my accomplishments, I was also becoming discouraged because it seemed so ridiculously hard for me to do. You see, I had discovered that runner's high that people talk about, but I found it when I had pushed myself to the point of screaming and I then slowed to walk. The sense of relief in my muscles was only surpassed by the joyous relief of my psyche! I was euphoric that the pain and struggle had ceased. One would think I had been giving birth daily! I know you know what that feels like. It's the same feeling that comes when you give up on a diet, and eat that Milky Way, or that first drag off the cigarette after you have denied yourself for weeks. Giving up is so easy and it feels soooo good…for a while.
If there is a devil or a "dark side" out there, I believe it counts on this seductive lure of relief to do its dirty work. Believing in and working towards your dreams can be so hard at times. We are surrounded by a culture of mediocrity that tells us that it is OK to settle, it is OK to sit in front of the TV and drool, it is OK to be unhealthy, it's OK to carry debt on your credit cards for years etc. Let's not forget the very helpful comments from family members such as why can't you just be happy with what you have? Nothing is ever good enough for you. And my personal favorite, what makes you so special?
Usually my mind responds to these comments with a) I'm not looking for just OK in life and b) God made me so special, so there!!! I don't let myself vocalize anything at all, I just politely walk away. The last thing I need to do at this point is get into a senseless argument, right? Still, when I'm tired or I have gone longer than planned without any noticeable movement forward toward my goals, I being to feel that lure. I begin to look at other people who seem perfectly contented to go with the flow, and take life as it comes, and I become envious of them. I can begin to feel what it would be like to shut down the blogs, to turn off the motivational CD's in the car and to just tune into the mass media. The further I get into that danger zone the louder the smack-talking voices in my head get, and, even worse, I begin to listen to them again. 'How could I believe that we'll have a $750,000 house in Scotch Plains? What am I nuts?' 'Me a size 10, yeah that might happen in the grave'.
WARNING, WARNING…DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!!!!!
Yup, at this point my dreams are in serious danger of remaining just that and so will yours. So what to do to stop the downward spiral through the danger zone into giving up? That is where my Inspiration Recovery Plan goes into action. What? You mean you don't have one yet? You haven't figured out what you need to help you up when you start to slump? Um, that's like running a marathon without a stash of protein bars and frequent grabs for water! Maybe you're not sure what you would need to put into a Inspiration Recovery Plan, so I will share mine with you now. You may not want to use any of these ideas, but I encourage you to think as you read about what would work for you.
At the first inkling that I'm becoming discouraged, I go back to the basics. First I pray. Whatever your spiritual foundation is, believe me it is the first thing you need to turn to when this starts to happen. For me I pray to God and to my grandmother and father who have passed on. I ask them to give me the strength that I seem to have misplaced and keep me from giving up on myself.
Next I lay my hands on the my all time favorite inspirational book Stay Alive All Your Life by Doctor Norman Vincent Peale. This book has a million notes that I've written in the margins throughout the 15 or so years it has been with me. These notes are from both my up times and my down times. I've underlined my favorite parts so I can just flip through and hear the good doctor lifting me back up. This book is a wonderful reminder about why we strive to be better and do more. It reminds me that there is joy in the struggle to shine and that the struggle itself is part of the journey. I being to remember that the sense of relief that accompanies quitting pales in comparison to the exultant joy I feel when I succeed. Slowly I begin to turn back towards the light away from the danger zone.
My husband and a few very close friends and family are also a great source of inspiration for me at these moments. My deal friend Paulette will remind me that I'm not thinking clearly. She'll always say to me, "remember that nothing you are thinking now is real, give it a few days and you will see things more clearly". My amazing husband will listen and then gaze upon me, with that incredible intensity of his, and say something like "that's not you, you're not the kind of person who gives up. We don't give up". My daughter is my number one savior. I look at her and ask myself how I want her to live. Would I want her to be the kind of person who settles? A person who allows herself to be whipped around by life? A person with no dreams and no direction? Hell no!!!!!!! Well she's going to learn by watching what I do, so I better keep picking myself up.
Music is one of my super secret weapons. I crank up a playlist of my all time favorite tunes while driving around. I play the songs that make me feel energized, happy and even silly (Unskinny Bob by Poison anyone?) I play songs that make me sing at the top of my lungs, because singing makes you breathe deeply, and breathing deeply makes you feel more positive. After I've belted out "Rain on My Parade" until I am hoarse, it is very hard to give up on myself. At the very least it would be very rude to the wonderful Ms. Streisand!
Now if I have let the lure of quitting get too strong it is time for me to haul out the big guns. I reach into my motivational CD stash and whip out some Tony Robbins. I let Tony beat the quitter out of me for a day or so and I'm right as rain, LOL.
This plan works for me because over the many years of traveling the road of self-development I have paid attention to what inspires me and what doesn't. So begin making notes to yourself about your surefire sources of inspiration. For instance, I know that just the sound of Tony Robbins' voice creates a sense of taking charge and excitement for me. In your case you might find that another speaker does that for you. Take some time to journal about the sources of inspiration that trigger an instant and strong reaction for you, and you'll have that entry to refer to when things start to get dicey.
Now I know that some will argue that I'm telling you to plan to fail, but I don't see it that way. To me the reality of being human and having emotions is that those emotions are changeable. When our emotions change into a more negative range we become open to temptation. It is nothing at all to be ashamed of and it certainly doesn't make you a weak person. Remember that almost every faith has stories about gods or prophets who have faced the long night of temptation and withstood the test. Why do you think those stories exist? Christians have the stories of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the dessert, and later,in the garden the night before his crucifixion, he prays to have the cup of suffering passed from his lips. Yet the moral of all of these stories is the overcoming of the temptation and the glory and joy that follows. Each and every time you pull yourself out of the danger zone you will become stronger and it will become harder and harder to get lured off course.
Hopefully as you've been reading you've already thought of a few of your favorite motivators. I would absolutely love to hear about your Inspiration Recovery Plan! In the meantime I think I'll work on a list of my favorite motivational songs so you can see how silly and twisted the mind of Melissa can be
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