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"Motivation": What is it?.....Can you REALLY rely on it?
"MOTIVATION"??..We read so many laments about lost motivation for workouts or healthy diet on this site. WHAT IS motivation & how do we maintain it? Well, there are 2 different definitions of motivation. The 1st is really about goals. What is your goal? What "motivates" you to exercise & eat right? To gain muscle? To lose weight? Etc. The 2nd definition is the one most people really mean??..How does one keep up the enthusiasm for hitting the workouts & staying on point with clean eating? This is what I want to comment on. How do we keep the fire going to hit the workouts & diet, day in & day out?
1) GOALS: Keep the goal in mind. Especially on those days when you don?t ?feel? like hitting that workout or eating the right foods. Personally, my goal is LIFETIME fitness (being lean), health & keeping active. Whatever yours is, keep it in front of you. Tack it on the fridge, your gymbag, your computer, etc. Whatever it takes to be reminded of why you're doing it, and where you want to get to.
2) DETERMINATION: Rely on determination, NOT ?motivation?. Motivation is an emotion, and it goes up & down, just like life. So it can?t be relied on. Motivation often FOLLOWS action, rather than precede it. I try to focus on staying determined, persistent & consistent. That way I don?t sweat it when I have lackluster workouts. I just go to the gym, whether I ?feel? like it, or not. Take the Nike approach??JUST DO IT. The desire will return later. If the problem continues, I try some drastic change-ups to get back the ole enthusiasm. Until that happens, just keep plugging along.
3) SLIP-UPS: When I?ve slipped up, I remind myself this is a LIFETIME process. WE ALL slip up. And from a lifetime perspective, slip-ups are just blips on the road. Businesses don?t close down after posting a quarterly loss. They redouble their efforts to get back on track to profits. No one would expect a corporation to shutdown after a 1 quarter loss, or ?slip-up?. Likewise, we shouldn?t give up and go on a binge after a diet slip-up. Or give up our workouts when we hit a plateau. Just dust off & press on.
Persistence & determination are key, not ?motivation?. Here?s a fav quote of mine from Calvin Coolidge, which helps when I don?t ?feel? like doing what I know I should do:
?Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.?
I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE TODAY WHO FEELS DISCOURAGED.
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