Sometimes a challenge of any type (7 days, 21 days, 8 weeks, 12 weeks) is a great thing to get you motivated.  While they work well for most people, they can do quite the opposite for others after the initial excitement passes and the reality of your daily rhythm sets back in.

So how can you improve your motivation to train beyond your 12 week challenge? How do you even stay motivated after the initial buzz wears off?

 

The answer is simple but one very few transformation challenges address in detail. There will always be a bomb out period if all you focus on are the things you should or need to be doing. Transforming your mindset and your environment need to be addressed when you are working on transforming your body.

In this article we will look at 6 things you can do to find your motivation that will not have you losing it ever again!

 

The first 3 points are the most important steps you can take. They are focused on the inner game, without them, the last 3 points, which are more physical things you can do to help improve motivation, will be short lived.

1. Think lifestyle, not short term.

Motivation comes and goes. Discipline, consistency and routine is what keeps you progressing forward in your journey. Motivation will always be a roller coaster ride if you jump from quick fix to quick fix.

2. BE the person you need to be to reach your goals.

Just focusing on all the things you need to do to reach your goals can get frustrating when you start to miss workouts or stuff up your “diet”. Instead, think about who you need to show up as to live the way you want to be living and start being that person. It’s not to difficult when you work with a coach who can help you. In fact, one of our online programs teaches exactly how you can do this. The greatest thing you can do to help you become a naturally motivated person is to change your internal environment.

If you want to look and feel great now, then start behaving like that person. Work on one small thing at a time. You can’t make a complete mind body transformation overnight but pick out a habit that leads to success and work on that until you nail it. Eg. If you are always hungry or trying to overcome sugar cravings, eating nutritious meals every 2-3 hours, drinking your daily water requirement, eating foods that nourish your body and all things along those lines will help. For some a vision board works well as a good reminder of the new habits they want to create. For others, goal setting works better. Map it out and work according to your plan. If you can’t stick to your plan then reach out for help. The only reason why it won’t work is because you stop trying and give up. Everything you do provides you with data on how you best respond, mentally and physically. No effort is ever a wasted effort, it’s all feedback.

3. Identify a powerful “Why”.

What exact event, moment or feeling was it that made you want to take action to change the direction your life was heading? Put yourself back there. What emotions were you feeling and why were you in that situation? Fast forward 5 years of heading down that path? You will find your initial motivator. However, that doesn’t always have to be your “why”.

Once you start training you will discover a new sense of pride as you take ownership of your mind and body. There is a very powerful “why” to come out of that. Keep a note pad handy during your session. When you hit that moment of “I feel amazing”, write down why you feel so amazing. When I first began training I had an incredible mentality “you won’t break me”. My trainer could throw anything at me and there was no way in hell I was going to fail at it. My mind was strong and my body followed suite. I loved training and saw so many positives that I made it my career and after taking my business from the gym to my own studio, my workload increased, as did our clientele. I gave out so much and became so physically exhausted that when I was training the word “can’t” crept into my headspace. I was shattered. A word I despised had taken control of my mind and body and I couldn’t even get through a session without tears of weakness and frustration. I invested in a trainer to help me stay accountable to my workouts and as I got stronger I became empowered by my weights.

For me, training is about my mental and physical health. It’s time aside for me to just spend time with me, to challenge myself in a way that makes me grow. It reinforces my strength and shows me I’m strong enough to overcome whatever comes my way. Weight training takes away pain, as much as it gives out the good pain, and when there’s no more pain to be taken away, weight training shows you you have what it takes to step up and reach new levels. That feeling is gold. It’s not a feeling money can ever buy. It’s a feeling that makes you want to come back for more, especially on the days you feel least motivated. When you experience this moment, remember it and don’t let a week go by where you don’t feel it again.

4. Do something you enjoy.

Join a gym, get help from a personal training studio, get a PT, do classes, train outdoors, go for a daily walk. Start with anything but whatever you do, you have to enjoy it. You hate burpees, fine, don’t start off doing them, you’ll probably get to a point where you might actually like to add them into your workout.  The most important thing is to be realistic with your routine. Are you going from doing nothing? Then aim to get out walking a couple of times a week or enlist the help of a personal trainer and start with 2-3 weekly sessions to help you with training and exercises best suited for your body. Once you get 2 weeks of 2 weekly sessions, increase to 3 weekly sessions and apply the same principle until you want to (if it fits in with your schedule) increase to 4 weekly sessions. A total of 3-4 hours for training out of your week is enough to see excellent results like the ones our personal training clients from around Lilydale have achieved.

If you are trying out this method doing your own type of exercise and then start missing workouts, I highly encourage you to reach out to one of our experienced coaches here at Assist PT for some help. Having a personal trainer will help you stay accountable to your training sessions until you learn to love training and it will ensure you are training for results as an experienced trainer knows how to program your workouts and tweak your nutrition so that you keep seeing progress!

5. Eat foods that fuel and nourish your body.

Every single cell in your body draws out nutrition from the foods you eat, so think of food as your fuel and fuel made right tastes delicious and makes you feel great! Pick out 6 to 10 nutritious foods you can whip up into delicious recipes in 10 minutes. If you are poor for time, cook up large quantities big enough to cover your meals for 2-3 days. Make truckloads of what’s simple and easy, something you can make many variations of. Herbs and spices are a great way to make your protein and plant sources taste different, as are different cooking methods like bbq-ing, steaming, stir frying, roasting etc. Simple variations like this mean we never get sick of eating the same old thing! If you’re currently eating 3 meals a day and snacks, switch it up to 4 or 5 nutritious meals a day and no snacks.

If you’re already eating this way but still feeling sluggish, see a health professional who can look at your digestive system to see if you have an issue drawing out the nutrients from your foods. We can help with this too using Applied Muscle Testing.

6. Entice your senses.

Just as cravings can be triggered from smelling or seeing something nice, so can your senses be used to help you be more motivated.

Find 10-12 songs that make you want to lose your shit and put them on a playlist. Structure your play list. First song is your set up song, a song that instantly changes your mood from blah to king of the world! Second song is straight into it, a song that makes you want to go for gold and the last song is the song that makes you turn into an absolute psycho so you don’t give up!

A long black is the perfect pep me up stimulant to boost your energy levels enough to want to do something with it. Many many times I don’t feel motivated to train, all I need to do is jump in the car, put on my playlist, drive by the coffee shop, pick up my long black, crank up the music even louder and I’ve gone from 1/10 motivation to 10/10 within the time it’s taken me to drive to the studio for a session.

Something else you can try is the use of essential oils. Any citrus based oils or mint scents like peppermint or spearmint are also great to help improve motivation.

There you have it! 6 tips to help you stay motivated.

If you’re looking for a coach to help draw out your full potential, contact us for a free consultation or work with us online in one of our coaching programs. Face to face, we offer one on one personal training service you can join in Lilydale, where you’ll be surrounded by a community of like minded people. Our personal training services are for those who want to invest in their long term health and happiness. Our workshops are great for those who want to address their lifestyle habits and work on improving their eating habits or mindset. We also have a workshop to help you improve your motivation!

Until next time!