Spring is finally upon us!  Who else is excited?

Spring is a season that usually comes in slow, almost imperceptibly—but this year—at least where I live, it seemed to come in with such drastic suddenness that it almost gave me whiplash!

One day, it was blizzarding outside—the next, it was nearly 70 degrees and sunny—break out the flip-flops!

The seasons are just one of those things that we don’t have any control over—and from a coaching perspective, I often encourage people to divide their lives into the things that they can and can’t control.  But really, if we leverage the things we can’t control and make them work for us, that is even better.

We can work with the seasons to accomplish our goals, improve our lives, and work toward the lives that we envision—and each season has unique gifts to offer:

Spring (where we’re at right now!) is a time to increase motivation and energy, and break out of the period of ‘hibernation’ we’ve been in.  It’s a time when the earth springs back to life—and so, we can too!

Summer is a pinnacle of sorts—nature is in its prime and everything is bright and beautiful!  It’s the perfect time to simply be fully present and alive—enjoying our lives, going hard after our goals, and putting ourselves out there. 

Fall is a time to let go of the things that are no longer serving us—much like the trees shed their dead leaves.  It’s not a permanent death, of course—it’s simply a shedding process that will eventually make room for new and more vibrant life.  But Fall is a time to get really real about what we can cut out of our lives to make room for the better stuff.

Winter is the opposite of summer—while summer is a time to put yourself out there, winter is a time to really dive deep.  It’s cold, dark and snowy—ideal for journaling sessions under a warm and fuzzy blanket.  This is the perfect time for self-examination, rest, deep inner work and really locking in on our goals—like going into a cocoon for a few months to emerge, new and rested, in the spring.

And on and on the cycle goes.

Today I’ll be talking specifically about 6 things you can do this spring to increase energy and motivation.  These are practical things that can make a big difference in your energy level and mood if you simply stay consistent with them—and the good news is, these are so dang simple that anyone can implement these!

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Tip #1: Get more outdoor time

For those of you who are thinking ‘I work a full-time office job—I’m inside all the time!’—yes, that does make it more difficult.  But there are certainly little pockets of time where you can squeeze in a few minutes here and there in the sun.

Spending even 30 minutes outdoors (can be split up into smaller segments if needed!) reduces stress, boosts immunity, gets that lovely vitamin D soaking into our skin, improves focus and mental clarity, as well as a key ingredient for more energy: higher quality z’s in the PM.

I find that there is usually one week every year (usually around late April or May) where the weather finally gets with the program and matches the date on the calendar—where I just feel over the moon happy.  It’s the darkness of winter that makes the sunshine of the warmer months feel even more special—and that feeling of gratitude isn’t one to simply let slip through your fingers as you become more used to warmth and sun. 

So get out and try to take a walk out in the sun at least once a day—and come back to me a week later and tell me that you’re not feeling at least a little bit more chipper throughout the day!

Tip #2: start a daily guided meditation practice to increase joy, motivation, and optimism

What you focus on, grows.

To change your mood and your brain requires focused effort—and in today’s day and age where everyone is much busier than your average bumblebee—focus can be challenging.

There are so many distractions competing for our attention all the time—and we can all get into that headspace where we’re just looking for the next, quickest dopamine hit.  So slowing down, even just for a few minutes a day, can be challenging at first.

But starting small—even just 5 or 10 minutes a day, to start—can have huge benefits.

I have been embarking on my own personal meditation journey and have been astounded that just spending 10 minutes a day (such a short time in the grand scheme of things) has had such drastic benefits.

I’ve been spending my 10-minute meditations getting into a state of certainty, confidence, and optimism—just simply focusing on and sitting in that feeling for as long as possible.  And I’ve found things shifting in the rest of my days—I have definitely been feeling a lot more steady and sure of myself, which allows me to feel more focused as I try to tackle my goals.

Here is the meditation I’ve been starting my days with.

I’d recommend starting small at first (like 5 or 10 minutes a day) and slowly building from there.  After all, none of us are really primed to sit and focus for an hour at a time—and that’s nothing wrong with you, but rather with the system that keeps us so busy and distracted all the time.

So be gentle, start slow, but stay consistent—and see if this doesn’t make you feel a little bit better during the day!

Tip #3: Revamp your playlist

You’ve surely had at least one experience in your life where a song took your mood from one place to somewhere else entirely.  It’s no secret that music holds an incredibly strong sway over our internal state.

Did you know that music can even change your perception of time?  I just learned that the reason why slower music tends to be played in grocery stores is that it can actually cause people to spend more time in the store, while thinking that a shorter time has elapsed.  Fascinating stuff.

But I think the beginning of spring is the perfect time to get into playlist creation mode—with the goal of crafting a playlist that will boost motivation and energy and get you charged up to tackle the day.

And this doesn’t have to include only hyped up, fast-paced songs—depending on where you’re at, sometimes a slower but more emotionally charged song can do the trick.

My tip (as someone who tends to get bored pretty quickly with the same songs over and over again) would be to freshen up your playlist from time to time—just to keep things interesting.

Here’s a few tracks from a playlist I’ve created in YouTube music called ‘Fun ‘n’ happy’:

Not over you-Tessa Violet (it’s happy, peppy, and youthful!)

Move your feet-Junior Senior (a danceable classic from the mid-2000’s!)

I love it-Kylie Minogue (I love Kylie’s music in general—fun, disco vibes)

I wonder-J-hope (Gotta throw some k-pop in there for good measure—but this song is just so cheerful sounding!)

A love like that-Gregg Alexander (If warm weather had a soundtrack, it would be filled with this (lesser-known) artist’s songs)

But feel free to make your playlist your own!

Tip #4: Make time for the things you truly enjoy

It’s easy to get swept up in the busy-ness of life (and even the ‘hustle’ of trying to get your life together) and completely forget the importance of simply enjoying your life for the sake of it.

For me, warmer weather means the chance to get out more—to move my body and have more social time—because those are things that charge me up.  But it could be totally different for you.

The point is to consciously carve out time in your schedule (even just a brief time) to do something that you truly enjoy and brings you life—and scrolling on your phone does not count!

My favorite YouTuber once shared that her therapist had encouraged her to spend time each day doing something that had no productive value—aka not related to work or personal development.  She chose to re-read the Harry Potter series right before bed, simply because she loves that series.  So it could literally be anything, as long as it’s something that lights you up inside!

Taking time to rest like this will increase energy and even give you motivation.  Working a ton just to keep working can lead to exhaustion—but working hard knowing that you’ll get a break at the end of the day (that you’ve scheduled in) to simply watch your favorite show can give you a something to work toward.

Tip #5: Master your mindset

Spring is an excellent time to really focus in on having a more positive mindset.  And changing up your mindset can have a drastic effect on your mood and energy level.

With the right mindset, we can even accomplish physical feats that we wouldn’t normally think we could.  After watching popular fitness YouTuber Natacha Oceane’s vlog where she runs for 24 hours straight (well, with some necessary human breaks thrown in), I remember thinking that physical training is really only half the battle, if that.  A lot of what we believe what we think we can do simply comes down to how we think.

It’s not a far leap, then, to think that changing up your thoughts can affect your physical energy and mood.

A few helpful mindset tips:

• Do a ‘brain dump’ daily to track your habitual thoughts/rehearse new, more helpful ones
• Change up your self-talk—both to yourself and to others
• Try doing ‘power poses’—stand up tall like a superhero and see how that affects your mood

Tip #6: Plan your days (to reduce decision fatigue)

The hardest part of having free time is deciding what to do with it—seriously.

I find that if I don’t have a solid plan in place for how I’m going to use a few hours, I’ll become paralyzed in indecision and end up doing nothing.

One tool I’ve found incredibly useful so far has been the Productivity Planner from Intelligent Change.  This planner allows you to plan ahead for what tasks you want to accomplish for the day and split it up into manageable chunks of time—then track if you were able to meet your goals for the day.  It’s incredibly ADHD-friendly and has made a huge difference for me so far.

Reducing the cognitive load at the beginning of a work session will allow you to allot more energy toward actually accomplishing what you want to accomplish for the day.

I hope you found these spring-coded tips to increase energy and motivation helpful.  As we prepare to head into the more warm months where the earth truly comes back to life again, may we come alive again too.

If you’ve made it all the way through this blog, leave a comment down below of what you hope to accomplish this season 😊  Wishing all of you a lovely spring, and here’s to brighter days!