Everyone wants to be the best version of themselves, but sometimes finding the motivation to change is challenging.
It’s safe to say that we’ve all been there. We plan out our healthy meals for the week, nail down a workout routine, and set an alarm, so we remember to get to bed early. However, once the week starts moving, we order takeout nearly every night while binge-watching our favorite shows.
And once Friday rolls around, we ask ourselves, “What happened?”
We understand where you’re coming from. Motivation is difficult, so what can you do to stay motivated and also motivate your DPP participants to make moves to prevent diabetes?
We’re glad you asked!
At Realizing DPP, we know that motivation doesn’t always come easy. That’s why we’ve compiled our favorite motivation tactics to help you make a difference in your participants’ lives.
In this article, we’ll cover how to motivate people to make positive changes, ways you can help your participants develop healthier eating habits, and what you can do to keep the motivation level high in your cohort.
How Can You Motivate People to Change?
This question is honestly a tough one to answer. Everyone is motivated by different things, and your participants may struggle with motivation unless they find that spark inside to make changes.
And though it may take some time to find what drives your cohort’s desire to change, one thing we know for sure is that it all starts with mindset.
These three mindset-boosting tips will help your participants prepare their minds for change:
Mindset Tip #1: Encourage Your Cohort to Believe in Themselves
It may seem like a generic piece of advice on the surface, but self-belief is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to positive change.
Your participants need to develop a sense of inner motivation and self-confidence if they want to improve their lifestyle. As their lifestyle coach, your goal is to nurture self-confidence, which begins by providing encouragement and guidance on their diabetes prevention journey.
One excellent way to boost your participants’ self-belief is to help them set achievable goals. Start with small, easily achievable objectives, and let those goals grow as your participants build their self-confidence.
Mindset Tip #2: Never Underestimate the Power of Positive Thinking
Positive thinking and self-belief go hand-in-hand.
Every day isn’t going to be clear skies and smooth sailing for your DPP participants, so you’ll need to be their anchor when the storms start to roll in. When you start to notice cohort members struggling to see silver linings, it’s your chance to encourage them.
Mindset shifts from negative to positive thinking won’t happen overnight, but being a constant source of encouragement for your cohort will make a significant difference. The more positivity you radiate to your participants, the greater your chances of helping them make the lifestyle changes they need to overcome their prediabetes diagnosis.
Mindset Tip #3: Help Your Participants Avoid Comparison
We’ve all heard the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and that sentiment couldn’t be more applicable than it is when you’re motivating people to make significant life changes.
As you work with your participants, it’s essential to direct them away from comparing themselves to others on the diabetes prevention journey. Some cohort members may find weight loss or diet changes easier to execute than others, but that shouldn’t be a source of discouragement for your participants.
The best strategy you can use to avoid comparison in your group is to foster a spirit of collaboration in your cohort. When people celebrate each other, it motivates them to improve themselves and raise the overall spirits of the group!
How Can You Help Your Cohort Build Positive Exercise Habits?
There are many ways to motivate your participants to get active and stay active — from wearable tech like fitness trackers and A.I. boosted motivational apps to the tried and true buddy system.
Always remember that each member of your group is an individual, so fitness motivation will look different for everyone. If you have members who lose steam with one strategy, encourage them to find ways to pivot until they find the perfect fit for them.
Here are our three favorite exercise motivation strategies at RDPP:
Exercise Tip #1: Encourage Your Participants to Track Their Activity
Motivation is easier to come by when your cohort can see the results of their hard work, and one great way to see results is to track activity.
Smart devices like Apple watches and Fitbits come in handy for activity tracking, but they’re definitely not required. If your participants prefer the analog approach, a daily planner or calendar can work as a medium to log their activity.
Encourage your participants to write down how much time they exercise each day. It will help them see what they’ve already accomplished and realize they can keep building upon those habits to reach larger exercise goals.
Exercise Tip #2: Help Your Cohort Members Find Activities They Enjoy
It’s safe to say that people are more motivated to do things they enjoy over things that seem like a chore, so it’s essential that your participants find physical activities that make them feel good.
For example, if your participants like to get out in nature, encourage them to start small with walks around their local park and graduate up to hiking on trails over time. These graduated steps will help your cohort take small actions toward improving their activity level while doing things they enjoy.
There may be times when your participants lose interest in particular activities, and that’s alright! When that happens, you have an opportunity to help them find new, creative ways to get active.
Exercise Tip #3: Promote the Buddy System
Accountability is key when motivating your cohort to exercise, and the buddy system is a proven accountability tool.
Your participants may already have someone outside the program to help them accomplish their exercise and weight loss goals, but you can always encourage them to have an exercise buddy within the group.
When choosing an exercise partner, it’s best for your participants to choose someone with similar interests. That way, they not only have someone to keep them accountable, but they also have someone who finds joy in similar activities!
How Can You Motivate Your Participants To Create Healthy Eating Habits?
Developing a healthy diet can be a stumbling block for anyone’s health journey — especially when your favorite fast food joint is on every corner. But healthy eating isn’t impossible!
Sometimes your participants feel like the odds of adopting a healthy diet are stacked against them, but you can help them overcome that feeling. Cohort meetings are a great time to promote healthy diets and share ways to keep your group on the path to better eating.
We suggest trying the following methods to help your participants elevate their diets:
Healthy Eating Tip #1: Help Your Participants Build Food Journals
Food journals are the activity trackers of the culinary world, and a great food journal can be the key to unlocking a healthier diet for your cohort.
We know that many people only see food journaling as a way to track nutrient intake and count calories, but it’s so much more than that. A great food journal will help your participants record healthy meals they enjoyed — it will provide them with a library of recipes to reference when looking for a healthy option.
Technology can also come in handy when it comes to food journaling. Apps like MyFitnessPal and Carb Manager are great tools for diet tracking.
Healthy Eating Tip #2: Build An Accountability System In Your Cohort
We mentioned the buddy system in exercise, but having an accountability partner is just as crucial for maintaining a healthy diet. When people travel the path to healthy eating and weight loss together, they have more motivation to succeed.
An excellent accountability system promotes collaboration between cohort members and lifts the entire group. Your participants will know they have someone to lean on in challenging times and have a constant source of motivation to stay on the right path.
Additionally, you will find that your group will build better relationships with each other along the way if they hold one another accountable for maintaining a healthy diet. Humans are communal creatures, and we love being part of a community that motivates us to achieve our goals.
Healthy Eating Tip #3: Share Recipes and Hold Recipe Swaps in Your Cohort
Sharing healthy recipes is a fantastic way to motivate participants to find new, healthy dishes that help them improve their diets.
There are different ways you could share recipes with your group. We love the idea of preparing dishes for your group before cohort meetings or holding a group potluck featuring everyone’s favorite healthy meals. Potlucks open opportunities for everyone to eat a healthy meal and share their recipes with the group.
Technology can also play a role in collaborative recipe sharing. A simple way to digitally share recipes is to create a Google doc for your group to share links to their favorite dishes or a group chat where everyone can share their recipes and leave comments on what they love about them.
Boost Your Cohort’s Motivation With Resources From Realizing DPP
Never forget that everyone is motivated differently, so don’t be discouraged when something doesn’t work right away for your participants!
Always watch for new ways to build your cohort’s confidence and celebrate the little victories to promote motivation and growth.
One great place to find new motivational resources and creative ways to boost your cohort’s motivation is the Realizing DPP community. Our Mighty Network of current and retired lifestyle coaches consistently shares new motivational tactics to help your participants stay on the path to a healthier lifestyle.
And if you’re looking for resources on the go, download the RDPP app today! Our mobile app brings the same support from our community site straight to your phone or tablet.
