What Keeps Me Motivated

What keeps you motivated? Isn’t that a question we hardly ask ourselves?

Someone recently asked me “what keeps you motivated?”

I put out a survey earlier this year and I left space for questions people could ask me. I’m guessing this person had been following me for a while. Maybe they could see and feel my energy through the screen. Maybe they saw that I faced hard things from time to time but continued to push through. I am not sure what someone else sees. We all have eyes, but all see differently with different perspectives.

I hope that I can share my energy, the way I persevere through so much, the way I fight back continually for the life I want, the mom I want to be, the wife I want to be, the person that continues to get up because I believe the world needs me – that God called me to something here on this earth and I have a purpose.

So what keeps me motivated for working out, continue working on a dream, take on a huge renovation project, bring my daughter up in the way she should go in truth, invest in a marriage when things got bumpy, after I lost my very first best friend (my mom) when it seemed like my world fell apart.

What keeps me motivated?

My faith first and foremost! The truth of God’s word and remembering where I came from. I grew up in a small town where much of it was poverty stricken and mindsets are just so different. My parents picked cotton back in their younger days and they didn’t get to go after everything they wanted. And I knew I wanted more than that. I didn’t know how it would happen, how I would do it or where I would go, but I knew there had to be more! But when I am able to look back on where I came from, I am humbled. I used to be ashamed, but now I know its part of my story and I shouldn’t hide any part of who I am.

Remembering what God brought me through. Isn’t it so easy to look on the outside at everyone’s great moments and we start to believe that they have this perfect life? The truth is, we never know what a person is going through. We never know what strongholds have been keeping them in bondage and living small for so long. We never know the whole story, but we can remember what God brought us through.

Knowing there is more in life than just doing the same things over and over. I became an observer and a thinker over the years. I guess I had always been a day dreamer. I would get caught in class with my mind just wandering off. But observing allowed my eyes to be open to possibilities and dreaming allowed my mind to be a bit on the wild side.

Seeing others go through hard stuff and come out on the other side has been another great motivator. I was lead to a mentor when I was a new mom and I had no idea of which way to go after I quit my job as a new mom with a newborn baby. I started slipping into depression. So here is this lady I had never met, my mentor, and she had a stroke at 19 years old. The doctors said that she would never walk or talk again. When I found her, she was running, smiling, happy, had 3 beautiful children and was talking up a storm! I started to wonder, how is this possible?? Most people go through less and are absolutely miserable. I wanted to drink from that fountain!

Realizing that each day of life is an absolute gift. My mentor helped me to see that each day was a gift. I started running. But I had to endure the pain of fighting my way to 1 mile, then 2 and eventually 3. But I didn’t stop there, I went to train for a half marathon and started fundraising money for people with cancer. I put myself in all the the feels of those that were fighting for their life.

Knowing who I am in Christ is a huge motivator for me. This was something that had to be learned over time after meditation, seeking and learning truth. I knew who I was in the world, but Heavenly Father allowed me to go on this journey to discovering more and positioned my heart to desire his. He worked on me through running. As I disciplined myself to keep going, he met me every single time. Not like in person on the run, but through ideas, thoughts, my heart, my eyes. I could dig in here all day, but that would end up as a book!

The last thing I can think of is setting goals and learning to turn off the TV. I also learned this really cool way to set goals and how to break them down to achieve them. That was how I stayed focused to be able to run a half marathon even when I got set back a whole year and I had to learn to turn off the tv. We see it as a way of living sometimes, but I used to read books all the time when I was younger, and as an adult, I hadn’t picked one up in a long time, but I was watching shows trying to drown out my misery.

Now there were times when I watched tv all day and then wondered why I couldn’t accomplish anything. We eventually got rid of cable. Binge watching shows will not get me or you closer to where we want to be. If we are going to go somewhere, we have to make some uncomfortable choices. We have to get down to the truth on what matters most in our lives. I still watch TV and movies, but I limit myself to one episode of a show on Netflix vs watching 7 seasons in 4 days. I will always have something to watch for a long time in that case!

Y’all, I had to ask myself some tough questions! Questions many of us go a whole life time without asking ourselves. I had to get my butt kicked by some crazy truths. My mindset had to be transformed.

I have shed tears, wanted to give up, have said under my breath, “what’s the use”, at times when I have extremely hard days. The key was to feel the feelings, have a day or a moment or whatever, BUT the next day I had a choice to make.

I HAD TO GET UP. I wouldn’t allow myself to stay down in the dumps because that’s not who I wanted to be. I also had to change the way I ate, what I was drinking, and cut out being a night owl.

I wanted more out of life more than I wanted to remain the person that was floating through life and I was going to chase after that! I started waking up earlier, I force fed myself all kinds of vegetables I did not like because I knew they were good for my body until I liked them, I put down the soda and picked up water, and I started going to bed at a decent time. I began to speak life over myself.

I take time out to do things I enjoy and things I enjoy are truly about simplicity. Not spending tons of money on wants, but taking time to just be on the beach, read a book, paint my nails, get coffee from my favorite coffee place, meet up with girlfriends for lunch, go ice skating, paint, draw, photograph flowers, plant flowers, etc.

The truth is we – me and YOU- have so much on the inside of us. So much potential and many of us settle. We settle for floating through life. And most of us haven’t even realized our potential.

If you are thinking “well I’m just not motivated like that”, you are feeding yourself a bunch of crap. An absolute mouthful of CRAP! And I love you too much to play it safe and not speak truth to you. May we stop giving up and stop accepting less than what we are capable of. You are capable of so much more than you have ever believed.

You are motivated. You have it in you.

You may have been telling yourself the opposite and started to believe that lie.

Much Love,
C. Keefer