Finding Your Personal Motivation For Your Fitness Journey

tzonedevlin (34)in #health • 7 years ago (edited)

Hi, my name is Trent, @tzonedevlin, and for the last 10 years I have been helping people just like you achieve their fitness goals, whether that be losing weight, gaining muscle, competing in sports events or even just posing on the beach.
I have a real passion for fitness and I feel that I'd like to impart some of my knowledge to help you move from the unfit, effort shy, gym bunny, paying monthly fees to corporate fitness vampires into an all-terrain, all-weather, all-location fitness machine.

While you don't need gyms, fancy machines, cumbersome weights or expensive fitness 'supplements', there is one thing you do need without which you are never going to achieve anything, and that is:

Motivation

On some less than ideal mornings when I wake up, having been dumped back into the grim reality that is the urban metropolis in which I live by my remorselessly vindictive alarm, I am presented with a choice. Do I hit the snooze button and enjoy a few more minutes respite in the comforting cocoon that is my duvet?

To snooze or not to snooze? Fluffy will cut you while you sleep!

Or do I get my lethargic arse out of my kip pit and go for a run?
Often when gripped by this dilemma I cast my gaze about my bedroom hoping for some inspiration, some motivation. Invariably I find it in the same place every time. Next to my computer is a framed photo of a friend and myself stood in front of the Eiffel Tower (we had gone to Paris for lunch, but that's another story for another website). Leaning against this framed memory is an unframed photo, it is a little crumpled but still as bright and clear as the day it was taken. It is a photo of me taken a few years ago on a soul-repairing sojourn to the beautiful and mystical country that is New Zealand. That it is a picture of me is unmistakable, but it is a me that few of my contemporaries would recognise. In the picture I'm stood by the mighty Waikato River, dressed in just a pair of shorts and trainers and I easily look 10 or 15 years older than my age at the time (I was in my mid-twenties, if you must know, and that's as much as you need to know). It is with a glance at this image that I spring out of bed and into my training gear. All thoughts of snoozing away any more precious training time are forgotten as I mentally plan my workout on my way out the door.

Though I know one early morning lie-in won't instantly revert me back to the haggard barely hominid being that I was, I also know that by keeping that picture staring at me as my motivation I will be less likely to want to skip training on those days when the duvet monster is more inviting than the park training circuit in 3 inches of snow.

Now while I don't suggest keeping a picture of me in my less halcyon days by your bed, what I do suggest is finding something personal to you that will keep you motivated on those inhospitable winter mornings when the last thing you want to be doing is running around outdoors in skimpy clothing.

Though motivation is a very personal thing, here are some tips that may be of use:

Goals

Setting yourself goals can be useful in every walk of life, from saving for a holiday to changing jobs. Motivation to train can be greatly improved if you set yourself realistic goals. Rome wasn't built in a day and likewise fitness doesn't happen overnight. The key is to set realistic achievable but challenging goals for yourself. If losing weight is your long-term goal, try to lose a couple of kilos a month. Setting realistic but challenging goals as road markers on your journey to health and fitness will keep you motivated and provide an excellent basic for monitoring your progress.

110 by Christmas, come on! But lose the toe paint!

Which leads nicely to,

Keeping Records

Record keeping is another excellent way to motivate you. After each training session make a note of how far you ran/walked/hopped and in what time, or if you are lifting weights make a note of what weight for how many repetitions or how many body weight moves. For whatever training you do keep a record. Not only will it help you progress by allowing you to accurately incrementally increase the workload you place in your body, but you'll be able to look back on how well you've progressed. Trust me, looking back at how weak, slow or generally pathetic you were, is great motivation.

An example of a Victorian era Data stick!

You could also,

Get A Training Partner

Training alone can be a soulless process for the initiate that can, if unprepared for, be completely de-motivating to more sensitive beings. The answer to this is simple get a training partner. A training partner is great motivation; nothing stops you reaching for the snooze button better than the idea that someone is waiting outside for you who you know won't let you hear the last of it. There's also the shared psychological boost of ‘being in it together’.

'Five miles to the choccamochafrappacino!' 'Bore off! I'm having a G&T'

This leads us on to another way to motivate yourself.

Competition

Competition had been part of human nature since the beginning of time. Add an element of competition to your training, either compete with your training partner or find a local event to enter like a 10k run or half marathon or for the ultra competitive how about a triathlon. You could also compete against yourself, using your record keeping. There are lots of ways to add some competition to your training and the desire to win will keep you motivated.

Sometimes it's not about taking part in competition, it's about taking the competition apart!

And what is competition without reward?

Rewards

Giving yourself rewards or treats for reaching training goals or progressing with you fitness is a great way to stay motivated. How you reward yourself is up to you, but exercise caution with how often you reward yourself and for what level of progress you reward. There is no point rewarding every abdominal crunch with a doughnut.

Maybe just the pink one for now, hey?

So, as you can see there are many ways to motivate yourself. How you motivate yourself is as personal to you as what you want to achieve with your fitness. Whether motivation comes from a picture of yourself looking old before your time or the desire to run your neighbour off the road at the local (not-so) fun run, make no mistake motivation is a key ingredient to going from who you are today to who you want to be tomorrow.

And just in case anyone was wondering...