Motivation is like a campfire. You start your fire with some lighter fluid, and it begins to burn intensely with huge bright red flames. However, after some time, the fire reduce, and we have to start feeding the fire; otherwise, it dies out and kills the party. This same pattern can be recognised in many cases when we start our fitness journeys. All buzzing, focused and energetic for the first couple of days or weeks, but then the motivation start plummeting, and we start asking questions like "Why am I doing this to myself?" or "Is it worth the effort?". This process is totally normal, and it happens to everybody. Not only in fitness but in other areas of life too. However, there is a crucial decision to make when you lost your drive. Are you going to give up or are you going to look for strategies to get back on track? If you decide to keep on going, here are a few ideas on how to regain motivation and remain inspired.
Create a mission, set goals
The terms mission and goal should be differentiated. A mission is the ultimate fitness goal that you expect to achieve, such as a 25kg weight loss or becoming a professional football player. Goals are the steps that will take you from where you're now to the finish line. Without a mission, goal setting is worth nothing and vice versa. Think about the big picture. What is the health and fitness level that you want to achieve and maintain for the rest of your life? That's going to be your mission. To get there successfully, you will have to set some smaller tasks that are in line with the final objective. When creating these steps, it's important to remember that your targets must be achievable, realistic and time-framed. Once you completed a goal, then you've earned the right to move on to the next one. This approach will guaranty to keep you on track by repeatedly bringing you new challenges and allowing you to experience a sense of achievement whenever you've reached one of those milestones.
Join the community
Being part of a community has huge motivation potential. There are solo "artists" out there, people who are highly self-driven, extremely focused and like to do things by themself. However, most of us want to know that we're surrounded by others who share the same interest and go through similar challenges. You can join a group of people in person or online as well. Sports clubs, fitness studios, gyms, lifestyle and training related groups on Facebook and other online forums are great spaces to get to know other individuals, ask questions and share success stories. Belonging to a group of like-minded folks and interacting with them is like drinking a double espresso. When you feel tired and slow, you drink a strong coffee, and your energy rises, your mood elevates. The same thing happens when you feel a bit demotivated and decide to chat with another member of your gym or the online fitness group you've joined not long ago. Hearing their stories and advises will boost your motivation, no doubt.
Plan your workouts
Success feels good, it makes you keep going, but success can't exist without planning. You can probably pull off this and that by doing random things in the gym at random times, but that outcome will never compare to what is truly achievable when you have a solid plan on hand. This is the reason why you should either write a plan for yourself or ask somebody else to draw one for you. Having detailed and descriptive instructions on what exercises to do and how to perform them, including form, intensity, volume, etc. give you a massive advantage compared to someone who is improvising at every gym session. Completing a planned workout is a small victory by itself. Complete a series of those workouts, stick to the plan and achieve that goal you've set earlier and you will feel on the top of the world.
Switch up your training
Boredom is the ultimate demotivator. Going over the same exercises in the same order time after time will shut down even the most motivated gym-goers. Changing the plan every 4 to 6 weeks is essential and not only to prevent dullness but because your body will require some new stimuli. It is proven by science that the effects of training will slow down after some time if the individual is continuously performing the same routines. Obviously, the changes have to be well thought out as the plan needs to remain in line with the previously determined goals. Introducing new variations and combinations as well as playing with the intensity levels and volumes are common strategies to create diversity in training. Often times changing the location, such as taking training from indoor to outdoor and vice versa does the trick too. If your approach to training is more laid back and you were perhaps doing it only for your health than think about experimenting with different methods. Try switching between strength, endurance, hypertrophy and sport-specific training by circulating them weekly or monthly.
Share your success
It doesn't matter if you like to play solo or be a part of a group, we all want to be recognised. Acknowledgement of our accomplishments and positive feedbacks have a massive impact on our motivation. We are emotional beings, so it makes us feel good when somebody says "Well done!". But people won't say "You did a great job!" if they don't know about the job you just did. Sharing your experience with your friends, posting it in your online fitness community or reporting it to your fitness coach provides the opportunity for them to reply either by congratulating or letting you know their feedback. Also, your story might just be the motivation someone else needed to hear that day, which is a pretty good feeling too. Circulating that positive energy will benefit all of us.
Summary
Everybody loses motivation at some point during their fitness journey and that's okay. It is part of the game. All you've got to do is, remember your mission. We've looked at five strategies to help you stay on track, but there are many other methods available. There are two words that you need to keep in mind in case you start losing your momentum: planning and communication.
If you’re interested in a bespoke training programme or should you require any advice regarding home workouts, feel free to get in touch directly with Szilard!
Written by Szilard Jakab
24.05.2020
Comments