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Don’t Be At The Mercy of Motivation
Blog | September 11, 2014
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.
Private Member |
Working out with you became a second nature. One year since I started and I can’t imagine stopping. When I’m some days without working out, I feel the need to do it. Not a pressure or anything, simply a need to feel good for hours after!
Private Member |
I totally agree with you. You put it into words perfectly, I struggle with motivation all the time and knew there was a different mind set I needed but couldn’t quite figure out what it was! Actually, just a few minutes ago I decided to put off my workout until later because I lacked the motivation. This is what I needed to hear. Thanks again. 🙂
Private Member |
Thank you for this post, Zuzka. You are absolutely right. We spend time begrudgingly going to the bank or the grocery store or dropping kids off at this and that. We don’t expect ourselves to be super-excited about those things. Health and fitness are really difficult to prioritize when the advertising messages are all about making life “simpler” with processed foods and pills to take in the place of exercise; billboards featuring beautiful, fit-looking individuals drinking Cokes or eating chicken mcnuggets. It’s important to recognize that we are really swimming up stream against these messages so OF COURSE motivation will fluctuate. I try to replace the word “motivation” with “persistence.” It validates that there is an actual struggle and that it IS hard to stay on track sometimes. The idea is to commit and persist. When I am struggling to persist in my fitness goals I turn on my favorite workout music and it ALWAYS gets me moving, even when I was just about to blow off my workout. MUCH LOVE TO ALL!!
Private Member |
Well said! Thank you…I think I will try to replace “motivation” woth “persistence” too!
Private Member |
I’ve been working out since my 20’s, I am now 56 and it is so ingrained in my daily life, not doing it is not an option. Rest days are the biggest challenge for me, I can’t not do something!
Love the workouts with Zuzka!
This site is very well done, well researched and very professionally produced. A pleasure to follow!
Private Member |
Spot on! Great post . Commitment and Consistency is key to fitness routine ( and other stuff) as these cultivate discipline and forming habits.
Private Member |
Very true that we often do things like run errands (or in my case, wash dishes!) with little enthusiasm but because it is necessary. I will keep this in mind that I don’t always need to be inspired to do my workout it is something I need to do regardless for my health 🙂
Private Member |
To me, this is one of the best articles I have read, Z, on the topic. Thanks.
Private Member |
absolutely agree.
coming from a wise woman of genuine experience.
best wishes !!!
Private Member |
This is very true, and confirms the current scientific consensus on how willpower works. Form a habit, and things get easier.
However, I’ve been struggling recently with an entirely different problem: I’ve had a very hectic time at work, and I just don’t have the energy to exercise. Exercise is very different with household chores, because you can do the latter even when you are very tired.
If I try performing high-impact exercise when exhausted after work (even if it is the next morning after a difficult day), I end up getting dizziness, headaches or just injuring myself straight away. The best I could do these days is to walk to my office rather than taking a tram, to move around at least a little bit, which is, of course, nothing compared to Z’s workouts. Last week I managed to get enough rest by Sunday to do a workout, but this week I finished working on Friday well after midnight, and that just drained all energy out of me.
I wonder how everyone else deals with it: having enough motivation, but zero energy to exercise.
Private Member |
I felt like you. I have been on a ketogenic diet for 3 weeks now and I am amazed at how much better I feel mentally and physically. Zuzka just posted an article on it that you may want to look into. Even if it just helps with the exhaustion you are feeling
Best of luck to you
Private Member |
After completing one of the recent pistol-squat workouts I feel inspired to make a quick comment regarding why some folks (myself included) may have trouble with doing the pistol squat. Clearly, everyone has different body-shapes and mechanics, but I believe, or have been led to believe ;-), that development of the posterior chain of muscles as described by Dr Eric Goodman of foundation training, is key to healthy movement and body mechanics. Anyone with half a brain can clearly see that Zuzka moves correctly in all of the excercises, while she does have a body-type that may not be the most common (especially compared to me, being a tall and lanky male) it is abundantly clear to me how crucial this development is as our car-based culture involves us sitting at work, sitting in the car, sitting at home, etc. many of us never fully develop a healthy posterior chain. This may very well have been discussed before and I know it is often the topic of crossfit or other various training regimens out on the fitness scene these days.
I personally have found that after working on my own posterior chain that I feel better, my body (especially my hips/pelvis and how it moves) feels better and looks more like I can tell its supposed to look if I were spending my days as a hunter-gatherer type human in the African savannah like our ancestors did for tens of thousands of years. I have also noticed that many athletes, the ones that are at peak-performance level move this way and have this strong posterior chain developed and healthy.
This is just my personal point of view, and just a suggestion to Zuzka and team to perhaps take a look at this area and even offer a regimen that could focus on it. I’m no expert, and perhaps you feel you have already, but as a client using the daily workouts consistently for the past 2 years (even back in the old body-rock days) I haven’t noticed any focus on this crucial topic.
Keep up the good work, stay healthy and live fit!
-Dandrige
Private Member |
Thank you Tabitha. Even though it is unrealistic for me to do something that restrictive, I should probably be paying more attention to my diet.