So how’s it going? All the positive life changes you set out to make on January 1 … still at it?

It feels like way more than just three weeks into the new year if you ask me. I’m ready for another holiday! But the new year resolutions are still going strong. I’m managing to maintain momentum. However, we are now entering a critical phase: week three.

The excitement of the first week, trying something new, has worn off. The week two glow of piousness from working hard at our challenge is burning low. By week three, our challenge is feeling like just that: challenging.

We have proved to ourselves we can do it (if only for two weeks) so we can almost convince ourselves it’s boring or too much like hard work or, my favourite, just sort of forget we were doing something new and revert to our previous ingrained routine, then wonder later what happened.

The claim is it takes 30 days to create a habit, four weeks. My claim is that the three-quarter mark is the crucial make-or-break point. It’s the time to dig deep — but where exactly do we dig?

Willpower, right? Surely that will get us through what we need to do.

Maybe. I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any.

I’m not being facetious. It’s just not in my skill set. What is willpower anyway?

Self-discipline. Discipline — tricky word that. Not good connotations for me; images of strict headmistresses with rulers. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, all my mental bullying is not enough to shift me to action, it just makes me feel bad.

The truth is, now that I’m an adult, if I don’t want to do something, then there’s a really good chance that I’m not going to do it. So, what hope do I have to make challenging changes if I lack willpower?

By tapping into a more reliable and renewable source of personal energy: motivation.

Motivation is multifaceted. Through my years of coaching, I have discerned there are at least 12 vital aspects to it. I call them the 12 keys to unlocking your personal power.

You’ve read about several here before:

Vision

Having a clear and specific set of outcomes that we are working towards.

Why?

Clarity on the deepest reasons why taking action is important to us, who it affects and how.

Leverage

The carrot and the stick. Not only keeping that ultimate outcome in mind as a prize pulling us towards it, but knowing what the alternative is if we don’t take action on our goals, to chivvy us from behind.

There are nine more, each another cog in creating a dynamo to drive us, almost automatically, towards our goals rather than struggling and disciplining ourselves through them.

Consider how we discipline children: the iron fist rarely works but setting out boundaries, supporting them, rewarding them, (bribing them), motivating them gets them to act.

If the week three blues are affecting you and willpower is waning, try cranking up your motivation to see you through.

If you need help finding it, get in touch. Or join me for the three-session wellness mindset course run through natural.bm, where we will be looking at all 12 motivation keys and other factors that open the pathway to our personal success in health habits and beyond.

• Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on 705-7488, www.juliapittcoaching.com.