Greetings from soggy and wet Maine, where it's raining so hard that both of my dogs are still wet from being outside three hours ago...(Their ears are doing a good job mopping the floor though.)

These two are decidedly unmotivated…

If I had to name the number one challenge I hear most often when people find out that I'm a fitness coach, it's motivation.

"I just can't seem to get myself motivated to start anything," they say.

As I've written before, motivation is your unreliable friend. The one who, if you asked them to pick you up from the airport would forget to show up.

Most of us have the motivation formula backwards. We think that we need to feel like doing something before we do it. But how often do you feel like doing almost anything that you need to do?

I had been in a pretty good workout groove since December, but after spending two weeks in Texas for a workshop, I've struggled to get my mojo back.

We all have natural breaks in our routines, and more often than not, it's those breaks that can really do us in. We miss one week of workouts, and then before we know it it's been a month.

This is when I lean heavy on small actions. As any of you who have worked with me know, I'm a huge fan of tiny habits and small changes.

Because action breeds motivation.

Read that again, even if you've heard it before.

Action breeds motivation.

A tiny action of any kind busts us out of procrastination and feeling stuck and creates momentum. Last week in my private Facebook group, I decided to hold a 1 minute of action per day challenge.

Virtually everyone who participated in the challenge did more than one minute, because action is empowering and satisfying.

Taking an action - any kind of action - also provides us with evidence that we can do a thing, whatever that thing might be.

If you're looking for a little help, click here to join the Kim Lloyd Fitness Neighborhood, where we'll be doing a two-minute per day challenge this week.

I love this quote.

I love this concept. 

Because it embraces you for you. It's not asking you to change. It's not asking you to be someone different than who you are, right now, in this moment.

It offers permission, and it also offers some accountability. Accept who you are, and where you are, but take action.

Start. 

Begin.

Change the story you tell yourself about what needs to happen before you can start something new. Too often we wait. I'll start going to the gym on Monday.

After my birthday.

After that trip. 

You can start right now. But you have to change way you think about getting started.

The quote comes from a book of the same title by Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun whose work I've followed for a few years. The book is a guide to compassionate living. 

I'm a procrastinator. I'll do anything to avoid getting started. I don't know why. I just do. 

But I also like this quote because it's gentle. 

The quote "no excuses" absolutely works for some people. Many athletes are motivated by coaches shouting things like no excuses, and no pain, no gain. I still have t-shirts from high school with those quotes. They work. And they are true. You have to be willing to recognize when you're making excuses regarding change. You have to recognize when you're not making exercise and nutrition a priority.

But I don't believe that motivation, accountability, and self-compassion need to be mutually exclusive. 

Regardless of what it is that you're putting off, take a look at what you're waiting for. Sit with the why. Embrace where you are in your life.

Start with where you are.

Start with you who are.