Staying Motivated
Written By Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
Life can be hard and stressful, so how can you stay motivated enough to be consistent?
It sounds ridiculous, so hang in there with me on this one, but I recommend you remove the choice of not going. Personally, my life is way better when I’m not allowed to negotiate with myself in the moment. I leave the planning and decision making to the strong, rested, motivated version of me. The stressed out, tired, unmotivated, comfort-seeking, anxiety-ridden, in-the-moment version of me doesn’t get to make decisions because that guy is a bummer and if I allowed him to run my life, I’d never do anything great.
There’s a saying I like, “The brain follows the body.” I’ve found that this holds true to most everything in life, especially working out. Even if the in-the-moment version of me is resisting doing something, if I can just get myself to start, the act of continuing is so much easier than starting. For example, washing my dishes, for whatever reason, is the bane of my existence. Although it only takes a few minutes, it feels like it is going to ruin my life when I have to do them. But, what I’ve learned is that the hard part is not actually doing the dishes, it’s doing the first dish. Once I’ve started, my brain comes along and doing my dishes is never nearly as bad as I work it up to be. The strong version of me makes rules that in-the-moment me simply follows through on. Strong me decided that I don’t like having dirty dishes everywhere all the time and that I want to wash my dishes immediately after I eat. Decision made. When the in-the-moment version of me gets the urge to “soak” the dishes, too bad. That version of me does not have the authority to negotiate and change the plans, but simply to follow-through.
Let’s look at a worst-case scenario with this strategy. In-the-moment me doesn’t want to do the dishes, but because of my rules, I do them anyway. Let’s say that afterwards, the strong version of me decides that I don’t like that rule anymore and, so I change it for next time. Even in the worst case, the worst that happens is I did my dishes a few times when I didn’t want to. Best case, I have created a habit that helps me live my life in the way that the strong version of me wants myself to. This compounds into huge results over time.
Exercise is the exact same. There are going to be many days where the in-the-moment version of you is going to want to seek comfort rather than sticking to the exercise plans made by the strong version of you. Simply get good at following through and showing up regardless of how you feel. Just like washing dishes, once you get yourself to the gym and start warming-up, your workout will feel much more manageable…especially when you workout with a group and a coach. So, once you’ve selected your workout program, get good on following through on getting yourself to the gym and great things will happen.
Want to explore how to boost your willpower, check out my article: How to Increase Your Willpower.
Back to motivation - The game is to use motivation to make your plans and to use willpower to follow-through on your plans. Those who are successful are not those who are consistently motivated in the moment, but instead are extremely good at following through on their plans. Over time, through experimenting with this, you’ll learn that although it feels like you will need willpower throughout the whole workout, you actually only need it to get yourself to the gym. Once there, the rest will fall into place.
Focus on Simply Showing Up 3-6 Days a Week
Heroic results come to those who are consistent. My wife, Alex Kiester, is a New York Times Bestselling Author (Sorry for the brag sesh!) and I have watched her go through the process of writing many novels. Her books are not written by waiting for days where she feels motivated enough to sit herself in front of her computer to write, but instead by consistently putting herself in front of her computer to write most days of the week, regardless of how she feels that day. From the outside looking in, I’d say that when I ask her about how her writing went that day, the majority of her writing days she would consider to be "not great.” I find this fascinating because the end results of her projects end up being amazing.
My experience with my business, my fitness, and my wife’s writing has been that the more days that you feel like are going to be bad that you show up for anyway the better your results. Not every day ends up actually being a bad day, but even on bad days, progress is being made. Simply get yourself to the gym consistently, regardless of how you feel. Take advantage of your highly motivated days, but the biggest predictor of your results will be whether or not you are consistently showing up. Trust me, those who show up, get the results.
You will inevitably miss some days. If you miss a few workouts here and there it will not matter, so there’s a balance that can be made between showing up and being compassionate with yourself when you mess up. As long as most weeks you exercise 3-6 days a week, you will achieve amazing things. It does not matter if you perfectly followed a program, what matters is that over the course of the next 10 years, you are showing up 3-6 days a week on most weeks. Do that and you are going to be extraordinarily fit.
