Let me tell you, if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone ask ‘How do you find motivation to exercise’ I’d have approximately twenty dollars (give or take).
I understand how difficult it can be to come back from work, exhausted and drained, then going to the gym to bust your butt for an hour only to feel even more exhausted. Let’s not even consider the chores and errands that are longingly waiting for you! It’s just not realistic! Or maybe you have to wake up three hours earlier than you would have just to fit an hour of exercise in. What sane person would even want to do that? Unfortunately, some people have it easier than others but that’s not the point here. What’s important is that we’re making the best of the situation we’re in. So here’s how you find motivation: you don’t. Give me a chance to explain my madness.
You can look at all the motivational posts and videos all you want (and they even may work). You can recite words of affirmation and load up on pre-workout! That’s all okay but what happens when that wears off? Or as I like to say, where’s your back-up generator?
You can look at a picture and say you want to be like them or achieve what they’ve achieved. You can drag your butt to the gym and power through like a champ. Once you come home you’re proud of your day’s work but the thought about repeating the process tomorrow makes you sick to your stomach. How do you get over that hurdle? Is it because you’re lazy? Or are you dealing with your own set of demons that’s holding you back? Either way, the earlier you address the problem the less work you’ll have to do down the line. So let’s work through it right now.
Take a few minutes and sit down with yourself. Have a long think break and ask yourself:
What is my internal force? The one factor that makes me want to exercise? Maybe I want to lose body fat or gain muscle? Maybe I want to prove something to my family and friends? Maybe I want to do it for my partner? The thing is, none of those are internal factors. They’re all attempts to please those around you and maybe help you get closer to some idealized version of yourself. Depending on any of those motivators for your happiness will not make you satisfied. If you’re always trying to please other people you’ll never even know what it is YOU want. And once you do please them or fulfill your need for validation, the question becomes ‘Now What’? And that’s where the trouble arises because there will never be an answer to that question that doesn’t involve pleasing other people.
I’m a big advocate of self-reflection. Many people don’t have the opportunity to sit by themselves and just think. Few people let their mind wander wherever it wants to go, but that’s when you really find out the most about yourself.
So now really ask yourself, ‘Why don’t you want to exercise? Is it exhaustion or lack of energy? an Injury? You hate your workouts? You don’t want to be amongst other people? You’re self conscious/anxious or you’re afraid of being judged? You feel like it’s useless because you’re not making progress or you’ll never look like so-and-so? I could write an entire list of reasons. But do some searching. Really find out why and come back when you have the answer.
Now let’s walk through it together, ‘I’m exhausted’ could actually mean that I need to find a better time that fits in with my schedule OR I may not be fuelling my workouts properly, ‘I hate my workouts’ could mean that I need to experiment with different exercises and workouts that will help me stick to your program or it could mean that I have to find something I hate less than what I’m currently doing. It’s a process where you have to find what works for you. When you address the bumps in the road before they occur a magical thing happens: you don’t give yourself the option of not doing it. What I’ve found to be incredibly useful is when the possibility of not going to the gym isn’t even an option. It’s ‘either you go now to the gym or you go 3 seconds from now’. Doing this doesn’t even give you the option to talk yourself out of the situation.
This brings me to my next point (the one I totally left you hanging on before, remember?),
what’s your back-up generator?
Do I want to feel better about myself? Do I just want to look good naked? Do I just love using my body? Do I love the feeling I get after a workout? Do I love the process of counting every repetition and controlling my breathing? or maybe I just want to do better than I did yesterday. I think finding this out is the second most important factor since you’re really asking yourself ‘how can I carry this on for the long-term without falling off?’. That means being open to experimenting, being willing to fail and being eager to get back up and try again. Finding out what you truly enjoy and carrying through with that will make all the difference in your workouts and results.
My final message here is that, you never truly ‘find the motivation’ to work out. Very rarely. If ever. Not many people are born with the desire to be in the gym (shocking! I know). It’s something that you cultivate over a period of time. It’s when you don’t give yourself an option so it ultimately becomes second nature to you. It’s something you don’t need to think about, or in other terms, it becomes auto-regulated. Even when that initial motivation dies off and you’re left with no flame of hope, your back-up generator takes over in the blink of an eye without you ever having to deal with any of the mental stress.
Marie
Marie Writes (A Fitness Blog) 