I don’t have time to do X

I don’t have time to do X. When I’m less busy I’ll do X. When the situation is better… Have you used these to avoid doing something? I have.

But are these the actual reason we’re not doing it? Is there a deeper reason why we’re not, and if so, can we do something about it?

One reason I see come up, again and again, is, in our mind, it’s not a priority. It’s not that we don’t have time or the right situation, but that it’s in the “that would be nice to do” basket, not the “I need to do this” basket.

We haven’t, in our mind, set it as a priority. We haven’t placed value on this thing. And therefore, there’s no reason to do it over something easier. If you want to do yoga, and want to find some way to fit it into your day, but keep finding you put it off, or find ways to avoid it, then this might be the reason. That in your mind, you haven’t connected doing yoga, with high-value things. Even if you have enough convincing reasons to do it, you don’t find those reasons valuable enough in your current mindset.

In this post, I want to show you two powerful ways of making your reasons to do yoga more valuable. By connecting them to a deeper source of reason & purpose, we can change the way our mind thinks about yoga, and help your mind make it a priority in your day.

Inspiration

The first technique is inspiration. We can think of inspiration as the bout of motivation we get when we watch an inspiring person or movie, or go on holiday and come back with new ideas and energy. But inspiration doesn’t have to be a random occurrence or something we get every now and then. Instead, what if we think about it as something we can regularly tap into to fill up our motivation?

If we think of it as something that can be and needs to be filled up, we can start to actively find & generate inspiration. One tool I’ve found for this is social media. To actively surround yourself, virtually, with motivating people. Follow accounts that you know generate motivation inside of you, that make you want to go that extra distance. This is different from seeing other people’s lives and feeling envious. It’s about raising your expectations for yourself and identifying with someone that can do the things you’d like to do. And in doing this, generating the motivation for you to do it too. You’ve shown your brain a path to take, that it is possible, and therefore it’s worth setting a priority for it.

Raise the Necessity

Necessity is the other technique to raise your priority of yoga. Necessity is the force we feel when we are in a situation that draws upon our need to do something beyond ourselves. Whether it’s to provide safety for loved ones, to have a life well-lived when we think about dying. When the cost of not doing this thing is unimaginable, whether emotionally or physically, our body is going to step up and make sure we do it. It’s a very fundamental force each of us has and can tap into.

Think of times when this has occurred for you?

Knowing what creates this drive, use this to your advantage. Connect it to the activity you want to do. For me, not being around for our daughter because I got sick or died creates huge motivation for me. It’s a little grim but is a very real feeling. If I connect this to doing yoga, because of the health benefits, like increased mobility, strength & flexibility, I am able to draw upon this deeper motivation. I’ve connected the necessity to a specific activity. And use this as my drive to do it.

Conclusion

Inspiration and Necessity are two powerful techniques we can draw upon in order to prioritize doing more yoga. In our minds, we can move doing yoga from the “That would be nice to do” to “I’m doing this”.