Motivation is something many people struggle with when it comes to fitness and wellbeing.  As with any kind of inspiration, motivation can be a difficult, inconsistent pursuit, especially as beginners and novices.  Unfortunately, it often proves to be as difficult to find as a needle in a haystack.  As a result, our workouts, our diet routines, our general sense of being suffer.  We think that we must always be motivated to endure our workouts, exhausting websites, articles and books in our desperate hunt to find it.  This is simply not the case. The key is to understand that we shouldn’t be constantly hunting for motivation nor do we necessarily need to have it all of the time.

Struggling with motivation should not be at the focus of our fitness routines.  Discipline and forming habits should be.  These form the foundation of wellbeing with regards to fitness.  Consistency, even when the very last thing we want to do is blast through another set of burpees or squats, is what allows us to reach higher goals and achieve greater results.  In fact, as one of my articles pointed out,  recent studies indicate that the more we consistently exercise the more we strengthen a positive neurological response in our brains when it comes to working out. 

 Don’t spend your day or morning worrying about how you’re going to get through your workout.  Try to tune out any kind of negative emotional response and treat it like you would a job or a chore.  We often go to work and run errands with hardly any enthusiasm and motivation and yet we still do these things, partly out of responsibility, but also because we know that they are necessary.  Diet and exercise are no different.  We are responsible for our wellbeing. 

 It’s understandable to seek out some degree of motivation – be it fitting into an old pair of jeans or finding just the right song for your workout – but don’t let it dictate whether or not you workout today, tomorrow or next week.  Form a routine and stick to it as best as you can.  After enough time spent being consistent, you will find that healthier choices become second nature.