“I love working …” by johndal is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
“𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅”
I’ve heard this phrase spoken by hopeful weight loss enthusiasts throughout my coaching career.
It’s tossed around haphazardly as the answer to all problems. The heart’s in the right place, but the thought process is flawed.
It’d be nice if we could drop by CVS and pick up a quick ten milligrams of Motivation™. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Even if we could take a magical pill that cured our apathy, the end result would feel far less rewarding.
In these current times, participation trophies and ‘everyone is a winner’ clubs have become the norm. These started as good intentioned initiatives designed to improve self-esteem. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly the outcomes haven’t lived up to expectations.
It’s well known that we place more value on things we’ve worked our asses off to achieve. Most people aren’t idiots. We know if we’ve earned a reward or if we’re just being handed a pity prize. Therefore, we’re better off struggling, failing, and falling flat on our face than taking a magical cure all pill.
Sure, some people seemingly are naturally good at everything, but that’s more the exception than the rule. Failure builds resiliency. And it’s more likely that the road to success is paved with bumps and bruises than Gucci gold.
Knowing that some failure is inevitable can be freeing, but it’s not exactly motivating.
The dictionary defines motivation as: “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.” So basically why you worked your ass off to finish that project or get the promotion at work.
It’s the why behind the what.
What that definition doesn’t say is you’ll be psyched up like a coke head after an eight ball to work on your shit all the time.
The thing about motivation is it’s usually fleeting, comes in bursts or waves, and sometimes feels like walking through mud uphill. No one’s motivated all the time.
Some days you’ll feel it and some days you won’t. What separates the Jedi from the Sith is the Jedi persevere even when it’s an uphill intergalactic battle and running away would be easier and safer.
So until the Motivation Fairy shows up, you need a strategic plan.
3️⃣ ways to stay motivated even when you’d rather just binge watch Netflix.
🔸 Write a check out to your favorite charity (the amount you write it for has to sting) and give the check to your friend. Tell your friend, if you don’t stick to your commitment to mail the check in.⠀
🔸Use a fitness app such as Gym Pact or Healthy Wager. If you stick to your goal you’ll get your money back, plus a little extra. If you don’t you’ll lose your money.
Both of these strategies work because they play off the fear of losing money.
All work and no pizza is exhausting. Planned check marks help keep you accountable by breaking up your timeline into smaller, more manageable chunks. More importantly, it provides a chance to reward small victories with periodic opportunities to indulge.
This works because of DOPAMINE; the key hormone in your brain’s reward system. It’s released when we experience pleasure such as eating food, having sex, or going on a shopping spree. By rewarding your effort with intermittent rewards, you are programming your brain’s reward system to work for you. The feedback loop works like this:
- Work out consistently for 2 weeks
- Reward yourself with the new outfit you’ve been eyeing
- Dopamine rush
- “Damn that feels good, let’s do that process again”
🔸Set up planned check marks where you’ll reward yourself for a job well done. New outfits, beer and pizza night with the bros, a vacation to Tijuana. All solid options.
If you’ve struggled with an issue for long enough, you might find that you’ve learned to cope with it by numbing the pain out. Essentially, you can convince yourself of almost anything by backward-rationalization. This process of self creating a seemingly logical explanations allows you to justify your situation and avoid the truth. This is done in effort to reduce discomfort. But it also makes it less likely you’ll take the necessary steps to change your situation.
🔸It could be helpful to go to that dark place for a moment to feel what it’d be like if you stayed permanently stuck and never accomplished your goal. When it’s examined this way, many people realize the cost of failing is far less painful than staying permanently stuck.
Although you might be searching for the right motivation to begin taking action, it’s often the initial action itself that leads to motivation. So choose one of the techniques above that resonates with you most and commit to it for at least 30 days. The initial resistance you felt will dissipate before you’ve reached day 30 day and you’ll be off and running.