The Two Key Elements Of Staying Motivated To Achieve Your Goals
Remember your why, and then eat like you like yourself.
It’s fairly easy to get motivated, but staying motivated is where most people fall short. Whether it’s trying to find the motivation to stop smashing lollies and shit food, or trying to find the motivation to get off the couch and into the gym. Making sure you can stay motivated is key to achieving your health and fitness goals and to me, there are two ‘must have’ elements to it.
1. Respect for the ‘Why’
Your purpose and reason for doing something, in the gym or outside of it, will have a big impact on your motivation stay-power.
When I ask clients the question ‘what is your purpose for doing this?’ their answer is often a want to lose weight or get jacked (or shredded). While these are all good and relevant responses often they are linked to a short burst of motivation coming from watching a YouTube video, eating bad food over a week or weekend, or jumping on the scales to find they weigh in at the heaviest they’ve ever been.
So, when the ‘trigger’ or initial purpose fades to the back of your mind (you’ll know – the chocolate aisle will start looking real appealing again, or you’ll be reflecting on seeing your highest weight ever on the scales and it won’t feel as shocking as it first did) how do you stay in the game? It’s time to dig deep and think about your reason.
What is your reason for wanting to stick to this ‘diet’ you’ve started? Why did you decide to sign up to the gym? What drove you to enter into a fitness challenge?
Yes, you want to be fit or jacked or beach body ready. But why? Is it that you want to finally look in the mirror and be proud of what you see? Is it that you want to be injury free? Maybe it’s because you want to be able to play with your kids without feeling like you’ve run up the Sky Tower?
Really drill down and think about your ‘why’ (or why’s – there might be many reasons!). Every time you feel your motivation starting to slack, it should be a reminder to yourself to start thinking about the why again.
2. Eating Like You Like Yourself
Most of the time a fitness related goal (whether it’s putting on weight [or losing it], getting jacked, or wanting to get to a better space mentally) will ultimately lead to the realisation that you need to eat a certain way.
For many people that means a ‘diet’ (“I must only eat these foods, and I’m not allowed any of these foods” type stuff).
Your intentions are good, and the concept can actually start off as pretty exciting. You give yourself a gold star for every day you make it through eating chicken and broccoli three times a day and smashing back the green tea and protein shakes like a boss.
Sooner or later, though, the novelty wears off and our ‘diet’ can quickly turn into a negative mindset where we hate the restriction and routine we’ve created for ourselves, and strongly dislike what we’re eating every day because it’s so repetitive, restricting, tasteless or just plain shit.
If you want your healthy eating intentions to have staying power you’ve got to lose the diet mind set and start eating like you like yourself. It’s that simple.
If you make your food choices from a place of love for yourself, you can’t consistently feed yourself shit, because you have awareness for the fact that if you do you’ll feel like shit. It’s what you do majority of the time that counts, so if you want the piece of cake one Sunday night that badly and the want to eat it is stronger than your ‘why’ in that moment then have it, and really enjoy it too. Realise that that’s what you felt you needed in that moment, but then think about how, with respect for yourself, you can off-set that decision. That might be taking the stairs up to the office the next morning or making sure you eat 100% clean the next few days, because you like yourself and you want yourself to feel as good as possible, as often as possible.
More and more research shows that your gut health (which you’ll be supporting significantly better if you’re eating healthily) is of huge importance to your mental health. So eating healthy, with care for your mental wellness, is just another way to show yourself some love.
The more frequently you fuel yourself with nutritious food the higher your energy levels will be, the better your mindset will be, and the more productive and motivated you will become.
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Remember your why, and then eat like you like yourself. The rest flows naturally on account of that perfect base you’ve just created (a clear and strong reason for doing something + a body and mind that’s nutritionally supported to help you achieve it).
If you do these two things, then finding the motivation to train shouldn’t even be required. You train because it makes sense to – because it’s good for you and/or you know it makes you feel good, and it gets you one step closer to nailing your why.
You get your 8 hours sleep for the same reasons. You don’t get smashed every weekend for the same reasons. Likewise, you have a rest day from the gym for the same reasons, and you eat the birthday cake your wife made you for the same reasons.
By the time you’ve nailed these two elements you’re creating your own motivation. Cooking nutritious food is easy because you know you’re going to feel really fucking good afterwards (and more importantly, the next day!). You train because you see results from the good food and effort you’re putting in at the gym.
Every day it becomes a little bit easier – because every positive choice you make results in a more productive, healthier, better you who’s one step closer to achieving your why. So, what’s your ‘why?’.