Motivation

Let’s do an experiment.Open a new tab and go to google.com and search for “motivation”, “workout motivation” or “motivational quotes”. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

You’ll see thousands of videos, articles and pictures that will show you what people can do with “The Right Motivation”. What quite a few of those videos and articles leave out is that the secret to motivation is that it's not motivation that drives people to succeed at a goal. Rather what drives success is the drive and the will to continue on your path regardless of anything that will distract you. In order to achieve your goal you need to be “a [person] of focus, commitment, and sheer will”. 

Motivation will absolutely get you started and I would combine it in how you think about your end goal. For me, I chose to pursue personal training and physical fitness because I want to teach people about how to improve their health and be more fit in their everyday life. My motivation is selfish, with helping people to improve themselves I want to be paid as a personal trainer or nutritionist. Often times, we are told to think of other people, rewarded for selflessness or told that it's a bad thing to “only think of yourself”. The tide on that thinking is starting to change for the better and self-care is a hot topic for self help gurus. 

On my own journey of learning personal training I procrastinated on writing, streaming and advertising because I have that little voice that makes me doubt myself. It tells me that I’m not ready and that the market is so saturated that I won’t be noticed. Success in my goal of being a personal trainer will not lie in my motivation. It will lie in my sheer doggedness to not stop at the cost of my own sanity. I’m annoyed at myself that it took about five months to write and start advertising. And I know that my past self would kick my ass if I didn’t get this out there. It's not going to matter if I write this for 1,000 people or if I’m just doing this for an empty room. Fitness is my life, teaching others is my goal. Yes, it's selfish that I want to be paid to do what I love, but it's confronting that little voice and squashing it out of existence is my drive to get this done.

So, if drive is the real limiting factor in achieving your goal in fitness (or other activities), how do you make yourself get it done? It's as easy, and as hard as, taking the first step. There can be no other way. Lift that weight one time, run one lap, write that one article. Ignoring that voice is SO hard the first time and it will put you out of your comfort zone. But the moment you break that barrier and you take one step, the next is easier, that weight gets slightly lighter, the next task seems less daunting.

A situation I’ve seen and read about before is someone who is so terrified of a gym that it gives them panic attacks. They feel they will be judged, stared at and ridiculed just for trying to better themselves. On day one they’ve signed up online so they don’t feel the confrontation, panic attack and sleep on what happened. Day two they hop in their car and drive past the gym and they sweat and retreat back home. Day three they park in the gym lot, sweat some more and return home. Day four they enter the gym and make it to the locker room, hear the pounding of weights and rush back out the door to their car. Day five, they make it back to the locker room and to the running machines. It may take you five hours, five days or even five months. The goal is progress. And the only way to gain progress is one step. One step propels you to two steps, then three, then four and by the time you’ve realized how many steps you’ve taken, you’ve realized that you’re closer to your goal than you were before. That persistence, that drive is the secret to unlocking that motivation to achieve your goal.

Now that I’ve gotten these thoughts out, that little voice telling me to quit is still there, but it's quieter. It will get softer and softer the more I work towards the goal. I will end with this: what motivates you to define your goals, and more importantly, what will drive you to the point of insanity that will help you achieve it.

What do you want to level up?