Tips to motivate yourself and maintain good habits

How many times have you felt unmotivated during treatment for an eating disorder? And how many times have you found it difficult to maintain a healthy habit? How many times have you thought, "I can't"? Many people will surely answer that it's countless times. The first thing we want to tell you is that it's normal. As with any process, there are different phases, each with its own challenges and positive moments.

In this article, we want to help you find motivation and give you some tips for maintaining a healthy habit. As you probably already know, these are two very important elements for progressing during the therapeutic process.

Let's begin by defining motivation. It's an internal state that activates, directs, and sustains people's behavior toward specific goals or objectives. It's the drive that moves us to perform certain actions and persist in them until completion. Motivation is what propels us each day to follow a particular course, and it's what we must cultivate to maintain it.

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There are two types: intrinsic, which comes from within oneself. For example, pursuing a hobby, improving one's knowledge, or helping others. And extrinsic, which includes all the stimuli or rewards a person needs to perform a particular action. For example, getting a good grade on an exam, earning money for work, or receiving social recognition for something accomplished.

When we consider establishing our motivations , it is important to take into account the following requirements:

• They need to be realistic. We're not going to expect to run a marathon without any prior training. But they have to be ambitious, something that sparks your interest and makes you want to say, "I can do it."
• They should have a short-term benefit. For example, finishing the term with good grades and not thinking about university while you're still in high school. All of this with a long-term goal in mind, which can be adjusted depending on how we perform in achieving the short-term objectives.
• They need external support. Family and friends are a great help. However, don't seek everyone's support; not everyone will understand all your decisions. Focus on those who do support you and help you keep going.

Remember that it's important to find your motivations and create an action plan to achieve them. Don't worry if you don't feel motivated right now. We can all find motivation; keep looking and you'll find it. Often, the problem isn't the goal itself, but how the plan to achieve it is designed.

And ask yourself… Are you doing things today to get where you want to go? If you are, great, but keep in mind that it's not easy and it's a long road. If you aren't, it's time to change and do those things that will lead you to your goal.

Oh! And enjoy the process; it's not all about the goal, but about the things we do along the way.

The importance of implementing healthy habits

Healthy habits are behaviors we've adopted as our own in daily life, and which positively impact our physical, mental, and social well-being. It's important to know that we aren't born with habits, but rather they are formed and developed throughout our lives (each person develops their own).

Remember that a healthy habit also includes meeting up with friends, having a laugh; not everything is what is imposed on us.

To form a habit, you have to make an effort and be consistent. You also have to do the same to break an unhealthy habit you've acquired.

Establishing a good habit requires the 4Rs:

• Reminder : Keep it in mind, don't forget it, but don't let it obsess you. It shouldn't limit your life.
• Routine : put it into practice, but just like before without becoming obsessed; if one day you see that you can't take care of yourself, it's also about saying "I can't today".
• Repeat : reproduce it many times. It's a process that takes time; you acquire it if you maintain it for a while, then it won't be difficult anymore.
• Reward : what we gain from having done it. It's always rewarding to do things that are difficult for us.

The more a behavior is repeated, the less effort is required, and it eventually becomes second nature. Remember that when a person develops a good habit, their motivation usually increases, and they eventually notice the benefits.

Always remember that this is a path you have freely chosen and that it is the one you want to achieve. Never feel it as an obligation.