Whether you want to lose weight, stop emotional eating, overcome stress, or overcome sadness and depression, any major change in your life can create feelings of discomfort. You are here and you want to be there. As tempting as your goal outcome may seem, you can’t instantly jump into a happy, motivated life.

Instead, achieving happiness and success means that you must venture out of your comfort zone into an unknown journey. On your way between here and there, you will most likely face many obstacles, experience setbacks and failures, feel emotions you don’t want to feel, and find that you must learn new and strange ways of thinking, acting, and behaving if you are to reach your outcome.

Step by step you walk the middle ground between where you were and where you are going. This middle ground tends to feel shaky and unfamiliar. You may stumble into an unsafe position wondering if you will ever feel safe again. One of the secrets to achieving a happy outcome requires recognizing and understanding that the changes you are asking yourself to make will be uncomfortable. Your success is based on planning ahead to get the tools and support you need to feel confident, even in the midst of change and uncertainty.

The following strategies are designed to help you find that confidence and security in yourself when you are in the midst of creating your happy and motivated life.

Acceptance of your trip

Whenever you feel unsafe, stop and take a moment to take a deep breath. Take several slow, deep breaths. When you breathe, you allow yourself to return to center and your inner wit. From the center, you can retrieve your broader perspective on the importance of the changes you want to make. You can remind yourself that you are in transition because you made a conscious decision to experience more happiness. You are not a victim of this change and no one forced you to make this decision. Although your journey from here to there may not be easy, remember that the joy and success you want to experience are important to you.

It’s okay to fall, but get back up

When you’re walking the middle ground between where you were and where you want to go, there will be times when you feel insecure and doubtful about your ability to have what you want. Perhaps you hit a roadblock or obstacle, or perhaps the amount of effort you have to put in each day was more than you expected. You will consider quitting. The question is, when you want to give up, will you hunker down, tell yourself you can’t have what you want, or will you pray desperately for someone to come rescue you? Or are you going to muster all your courage and find some way to motivate yourself to keep going once again? It’s okay to stumble and fall, we all do it at one time or another. It’s even okay to lie on the ground for a while. The important thing is to remember that you are still on your way, still looking forward, and you can still have what you want. What is the step you can take right now that will help you to further increase your level of motivation?

choose faith

Have you ever heard the expression, “Feed your faith, not your fears.” I love how this sentence can reduce a complicated situation to a very simple choice. Use this phrase to perform a reality check on yourself. When you feel doubt or fear, are your thoughts and actions helping you develop confidence in yourself that you can have what you want? Are they taking you further down a dark spiral of negativity and despair? The question is not whether or not you will experience fear. Fear is a natural byproduct of embarking on your goal journey. The problem is how you will deal with fear when it appears: will you feed faith or feed fear?

get support

Your journey between here and there is your own unique experience that you must navigate on your own. No one can make the trip for you, and no one can pick you up and drop you off on the other side. The journey itself is what offers the strengths, insights, wisdom, and joy you are seeking. So you should go your own way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hold hands with some friends for a while. Meet with a nutritional therapist, life coach, friend, or counselor on a regular basis to stay motivated. Your support people can help you get through periods of uncertainty and instability and remind you that feeling happier and more motivated is what you want most.

words are powerful

Be very aware of the words you use. Do the words you speak empower you or leave you feeling powerless? Are your thoughts self-sufficient or self-defeating? Do you cheer up when things are going well and when things are difficult? Learning to motivate yourself with positive, self-affirming, witty and loving language is what allows you to feel happy and gain motivation to take each next step. Look into your eyes in the mirror and speak kind and persuasive words. It’s up to you to provide the motivation you need to succeed.

take a risk

Change requires you to move from your smallest and most confined circle of comfort to one that is larger and more expansive. To achieve ultimate success, you will need to go beyond the limits of your comfort zone. Just like Columbus sailing to explore the ocean’s edge, you too are exploring new unknown territory. Allow yourself to be a beginner again: this is how you grow and transform. If you take a chance and fail, learn from the experience and adjust your actions. Just don’t give up!

Create a ritual to honor the change

Symbolically acknowledge your journey by creating a ritual to honor the growth and changes you have been making. A ritual can be anything metaphorical that has meaning to you. Maybe it could be burying your scale, donating all your biggest clothes, giving your diet books to the local library, celebrating your trip with friends, or even making a list of all the things that have been holding you back on little slips of paper and burning them them. Take some kind of physical action to recognize the path you are moving on. Doing this creates a deeper sense of meaning and importance to your daily actions and raises your level of motivation. You develop respect for the transition you are involved in. A ritual can help you close a door that you are ready to close.

Get a transition object

Your ability to feel happy and stay motivated can also increase when you carry a transitional item. Your transition item can remind you of your successes so far and keep your vision on your overall goal. The object could be something that reminds you of your trip, or it could be an item that brings you comfort.

Link your sense of touch with the feeling of being happy or motivated. For example, think about how a young child can comfort himself with a stuffed animal or blanket, or how rosary beads can help turn thoughts back to love. Find your own transition item that you can touch, pat, or hold to remind you of the importance of your journey and give you the motivation to keep going. Below is a list of transitional items that you could easily carry in your pocket or on your body:

o Small smooth stone

oCrystal

or special necklace

o Ring for your finger

or shell

o Symbolic lapel pin

Your goals to stop overeating, lose weight, overcome stress, or overcome sadness and depression are important goals. Congratulations on your courage to move on and make a better life for yourself. Use these tips and advice to stay motivated, feel happy about the changes you’re making, and believe in yourself. Although your path may seem unsteady at times, you can truly live the life of your dreams.