When I talk to customers, clients, and readers a lot of people bring up motivation as their biggest stumbling block.
So you’ve got a plan, you have the skills and knowledge to execute the plan, but you just don’t have that oomph to get the ball rolling. I get that, believe me.
I think I struggle with motivation just as much as the next person. When I fall off my lifting routine due to travel or circumstances out of my control it’s damn hard for me to get going again.
One thing I believe about motivation is that it’s not this *thing* that can be giveth or taketh. I don’t think motivation really exists at all. You don’t need motivation to do anything. You either do the thing, or you don’t do the thing.
But, there certainly can be reasons to do the thing or not do the thing. If it makes you feel good you’re more likely to do the thing. If it makes you feel bad, you’re less likely. If there is another thing you’d rather be doing then you’d probably do that thing instead of the other thing that you’d rather NOT be doing. And so on.
Motivation, in so much that it exists at all, is not static. Buying some new workout gear might give you a reason to get after it for a week or two, but then the buzz wears off. On the other hand, the momentum of six months of regular workouts makes it a lot easier to drag yourself to the gym on Monday after a tiring weekend. Inertia is way more important than whatever motivation is.
I’m going to teach you how to build motivation the Cardigan Mark (Schneider) way.
One of the very most important concepts I try to instill is the idea of pregression and progression with exercise. I don’t care if you can’t lift 300 pounds right now because if you can lift 3 pounds I can eventually get you to lifting 300.
So here’s the big trick with motivation: Stop trying to do The Thing™.
Let’s say you have your workout plan, you have your gym membership, you have your clothes, but you can’t bring yourself to drive to the gym after work and go into the gym and do it.
Fine, no problem.
Start with driving to the gym. Park in the lot. Put your car in reverse and drive home.
Do that for a few days until it feels like a waste of time to drive to the gym just to turn around.
When you’re ready, drive to the gym, park, go inside, say hello to the front desk person get a drink of water and go home if you don’t feel like lifting.
Repeat this until you find yourself in the weight room with enough inertia to just pick up that first weight. For me, if I can get myself to do one rep I’ll probably do the whole workout. Not always, but usually.
Maybe you work out at home. Put your gym clothes on. Sit down in your home gym area. If you decide not to work out, take them off again. Keep doing that until you pick up the weight.
Yes, this might take you 7 weeks to actually do your first workout. I don’t care if it takes that long. If you’re reading this and motivation is your roadblock it has probably been 7 months or more anyway. Build the inertia and let it carry you.
The point is to take action, instead of waiting for that ephemeral motivation fairy to come grant you action.
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