Motivation: Who needs it?
 

So, I belong to the Stumptuous group on Facebook.. run by Mistress Krista herself.

Since motivation for working out is something I have been struggling with for YEARS, I asked the question:

Originally Posted by :
How do you all stay motivated to train? I seem to have a bad habit of making training my lowest priority. Or I keep thinking "I'll train more when I have this extra special shiny piece of equipment". All advice welcome (and I'm an uber newbie to lifting.. as in I have some kettlebells at home and that's it)

And this is what Krista said:

Originally Posted by :
Forget "motivation". Motivation is great for the first 2 minutes. The only things that work are systems, schedules, and strategies. You have to explicitly and consciously prioritize regular movement, then build movement into the structure of your day, just like any other commitment. And ask yourself two crazy questions: "What do I feel I have to 'give up' or lose by avoiding regularly scheduled movement? How am I actually benefiting by NOT exercising regularly?" You may be committed to something else, like "being busy", without even realizing it -- and THIS competing value is what stands in your way, not "motivation".

I thought this was incredibly wise.. so I wanted to share it here.

:yes: Amen!

Who needs motivation when it's never there for you when you need it?

Commitment is the way to go.

Totally agree. What is motivation anyway. A need/want that we strive to fill. Once it's been met, where do we go from there? And honestly, the need/want that we tell ourselves that drives our action (motivation) may actually be masked as a different kind of need/want that could easily be filled in another way and then we become distracted. :dizzy:

I've never had the "motivation" in the sense that I think most people assume is needed to do this. If it were to become healthier so that I could live a more enriching life with my loved ones, well then I hit that a long time ago. So it had to be a different mindset beyond just goal reaching. I just consider it my job to do this. Up until this year I was at the gym by 8:45am (after dropping my sons off from school) five days a week. Saturdays I got there at 9:00am. The only exceptions were the occasional school function or cold virus.

Yeah, motivation is kind of a flimsy thing to base the actions upon. It's great to get you started but in the long run, the actions really need to be more assimilated into who are.

Originally Posted by Lydia227:
If it were to become healthier so that I could live a more enriching life with my loved ones, well then I hit that a long time ago.

you know what? this might be why I've gotten *stuck* because, looking back now, that was my goal.. and I have reached that.. but I"m still not "fit" or "strong". I'm better than I was ... so maybe I did hit that point where my brain said "well, this is good enough".

Thank you for that comment.. you really have made me think.