One day you are ready to go, excited to train and make progress. Fast forward a few days, weeks or months and this motivation is gone. So what happened?!
Motivation is great for kickstarting our health and fitness goals, but it tends to come and go throughout our journey. As nice as it would be to always be 100% motivated to train hard every session, this isn’t always the case. So why is that?
Motivation is a temporary state. External circumstances can heavily influence a person's motivation. Long day at work, an unfriendly encounter with someone, a fight with a relative or friend… All of these things can affect our current mood which can have a rippling effect on our motivation levels.
Yes, this is human! So don’t think there is something wrong with you if you are not motivated all the time.
You might wonder how those people you see constantly in the gym working hard consistently do it. At some stage, people learn to turn motivation into discipline. The people who are making long-term progress are the ones who build sustainable habits and are committed to their goals and the process it takes to achieve them.
Dedication and commitment to your fitness goals are what will ultimately help get you to the gym or help you complete your workouts.
If you rely on motivation, you will be inconsistent. So if consistency is something you struggle with, start practicing self-discipline. Create a gym schedule that suits your lifestyle and stick to it. If something comes up and throws your plan off track, learn to also be adaptable.
Life isn’t perfect and it certainly does not always go to plan. If you are dedicated to your goals and they are important to you, then you will make it work.
In all honesty, it would be a perfect world if we woke up every day refreshed and motivated to hit the gym. Nothing stood in our way. However, this is rarely the case. When we first start our journey toward a new goal, our motivation levels are high so we tend to put more effort in and are more committed. This initial motivation is fleeting, as we progress through the weeks/months of the year, we tend to lose motivation. It comes and goes throughout the journey.
What we need to do is ensure we build habits around our goals in order to achieve them. So going to the gym or working out consistently will be one of these habits we need to build.
If you are looking for a good read, check out “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. This book is great as it talks through the most fundamental information about habit formation.
“Atomic Habits” explores “The Four Laws of Behaviour Change”:
Make it obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it satisfying
These four laws of behaviour change can be applied to any habit.
Let’s take a look at building a habit around consistency with the gym…
Make it obvious - Do this by laying out your gym clothes the night before so you SEE them in the morning. Or put your runners on the passenger seat of your car as a reminder to go to the gym after work.
Make it attractive - Choose a type of physical activity that you enjoy, this will encourage you to actually go. If you like yoga - attend a yoga class, if you like powerlifting - go lift some weights, if you enjoy cardio - go for a run. Make it enjoyable.
Make it easy - Don’t make it harder for yourself than it has to be. It’s best to not try and go from 0 to 100, as most people end up burning out quickly. Build up slowly, start by committing to 2 sessions a week, then gradually build upon that once the habits begin to form. If you never gym and decide to commit to 6 sessions a week, you might find yourself constantly missing sessions.
Make it satisfying - Give yourself a pat on the back each time you make it to the gym, despite what may have gone on throughout the day. We want to link satisfaction with our habits being repeated, this helps to drive habit formation.
We all have the ability to create healthy, sustainable habits that will benefit us hugely in the long term. We also have the ability to keep ourselves accountable and learn self-discipline.
Take some time to set a few goals that are meaningful to you, then use these goals as a baseline to create relevant habits that will get you to those goals. A tip for creating healthy habits and sticking to them is to start small. Small manageable changes are a great way to lead you toward long-term success.
Remember that motivation is fleeting and we can’t rely on it long-term. Work on committing yourself to your long-term goals. Do this by gradually building habits into your life that will lead you to a healthier version of yourself.