The most important subject with any fitness program is motivation.
What level is your motivation? High or Low?
How do you tell if your motivation is being used in the correct way?
Here are a few simple tips to keep your motivation moving in the right direction.
Firstly, the most important rules for motivation is to get your questions right ! For example most of my clients the reason they exercise is to lose weight. When I ask them “how much weight do you want to lose ?” most don’t know the answer. So before you get started firstly figure out what you want to achieve? The reason for this is very simple. We need to set goals and targets for ourselves to achieve to feel progression and feel like we are making a difference. Most people fail because either they have set the goals to high or they haven’t set any goals at all !
Step 1 Ask the right questions
Why should I lose weight ?
How can I lose weight ?
How much weight do I want to lose ?
Once you’ve answered these questions you have more of an idea of what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve that goal. Maybe you want to improve your fitness so you can play with your kids more ? or you may want to lose weight for a particular event such as a wedding or holiday.
Step 2 Find something you like doing !
A good way to improve your motivation is to find a hobby or sport you like doing. Most people hate running, I know this from experience. If your quiet a big person running can be a hard difficult event as the extra weight makes you feel uncomfortable , slow and tired. So if this is the case maybe, running is for you to get started. Maybe you prefer swimming, rowing, walking or cycling. I know a lot people whom have started sports they don’t like so that they can burn more calories and lose weight faster. The problem with this is that every time they exercise they have to push themselves hard to did it. Simple find your hobby and stick too it, If you like cycling then cycle more !
Step 3 Sign up for an event
This is the step which will push you to achieve your goal. Make sure that your goal is achievable and realistic. For example , if you have only run 2 miles in the last 2 years don’t sign yourself up for a marathon to start off with this is unrealistic.Always give yourself time to train, normally 3-4 months before your event is a prefect time to start training. Sign up for a 10 km run first, this would be a more realistic goal that you could aim for.
Step 4 Create Anchors
Always think of the reason why you want to lose weight. I good way to do this is to look into the future.
Think this first
Imagine you choose not to do anything about your weight or lifestyle Look at yourself in 2 years time and vision to see yourself, maybe you’ve put on more weight ? maybe your still smoking heavily and have bags under your eyes? What in your life has changed ?
Now think this
Do the same as before but this time imagine you did decide to change your lifestyle , being more active and outgoing then thinking how this has impacted on your life? maybe you’ve got more friends, a better social life, eating better foods, playing with your kids more or maybe doing somethings you’ve always dreamed of doing. Events like snowboarding, surfing, climbing or even sky diving. The list is endless.
I know which vision I prefer.
Step 5 Stop thinking about your training
The one thing I notice from my clients is that motivation changes through out the week. It often depends on weather, diet, social events, time scale and family matters there are many different reasons why our motivation changes from day to day.
Don’t plan too much !
If you find you have an extra 30 minutes in a day just put your running shoes on and walk out the door. Often planning can get your mind asking lots of questions and reasons for yourself not to go running. We always have a plan, but more times that often something will come up and the plan will change. Normally you will put your training on hold until tomorrow, then you will feel guilty and end up not training for a week. Remember your brain is the biggest challenge you face. It will come up with millions of ideas to put you off from doing something. That’s why it’s better not to think about it and just get on with it.
Myself
II went to the gym 5 for years thinking I was highly motivated, the truth is I had motivation to go to the gym but I found out that I had achieved non of my goals of losing weight or increasing muscle.
What were my goals ?
what did I want to achieve ?
The most important things in achieving something is to know what you want first. After 5 years of training at the gym I was finally bored I need a change. A few days later I asked myself better questions and found a new fitness challenge. I became interested in triathlons. It was something completely new for me, a whole lifestyle change, I have never felt so better. Now I go training and I have a reason, this makes a huge difference with performance and motivation. I record everything I do in a training diary, on completion of each daily program I log it into the diary. This give me huge satisfaction each day I can look back and I can see everyday has its meaning, no day is wasted.
