How many things do you do every day that you think are hard? Maybe it’s that long commute to work, cooking a healthy meal for your family, or just getting up in the morning. But are any of those things really that hard? No, of course not! It’s what we tell ourselves. If you say to yourself that something is “hard”, it will be!

How do we stop telling ourselves this? It’s actually quite “easy” to change the way we send messages from our brain to our body. It’s all about turning those messages from passive to active so we can take action in a way that ultimately has us feeling better too! Maybe you have been telling yourself, “I have to cook something healthy.” How about saying instead, “I am going to cook something healthy and it’s going to be delicious!” Or substitute, “I need to get up now and work out,” with “I will get up now and work out.” By using more active language, we are already moving what we need to do from a passive state to one more active which is much more empowering. Don’t you think?

Imagine a cold winter night when all you want to do is get home but you still have a long walk ahead of you. Would you say to yourself, “Oh, I have to walk all that way. It’s far and I’m so cold.” Not very motivating, is it? Now what if you tell yourself, “Look at me, I’m doing it. There’s another step, and, oh I just took another and another. I’m almost there now!” It’s important to be in action using empowering language instead of disempowering language with everything you do, no matter how simple the task seems. Taking a passive, or disempowered, approach will only use up more of your physical and mental energy. Being passive is good for things like relaxing, but not for when you need to do things. If you stay in a passive mindset on a daily basis, you’ll only feel less motivated, you’ll be more resistant, and you’ll get more frustrated more easily.

If you want to do something, then tell yourself you “will” do it, not that you “have to” or “need to”. Once you switch to an active mindset, there will be no stopping you! You’ll be more energized, inside and out, and be amazed at how much more you can get done and how you feel about doing those things. Next time you’re doing a simple everyday task that you tend to drag your feet on, be more active in how you approach it. Even if it’s just brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage. Do you want to just get through it and get it done? Or do you want to see the benefits from getting it done? Put it to the test and you’ll notice a difference. Or, rather, an active difference!