If You’re Waiting For Motivation To Get You Off The Couch, You May As Well Get Comfortable

I’m well aware that sometimes I come across as harsh with my statements. In a previous conversation I’d had with a client a few years back, I thought I was just laying out facts. Turns out she felt she’d had a ‘talking to’. Lucky for me this didn’t upset her because she needed a little push to get back on track and wouldn’t have done it by herself. Accountability is the number one reason people hire me; to tell them the truth about why they’re not succeeding and help them change.

No one has ever come right out and called me mean because I try diligently to deliver the truth as gently as I’m able. But the truth can be hard to swallow; especially when you’ve been avoiding it to such a degree that now someone else is telling it to you about yourself.  That’s not to say the truth has to be communicated in a disrespectful or nasty way, but no matter how much I candy coat some words, the message always comes across as bitter and sad.

So if you’re reading this, get ready for some sugar-free talk around why your progress is stalling. Actually it’s just one word. 3 syllables.

D I S C I P L I N E

To me it’s a beautiful word. The noun, not the verb. Go look it up! My favorite descriptors associated with this word are as follows:

1. Self Control

2. Orderly Conduct or Pattern of Behavior

People are understandably put-off by this word’s association with obedience, punishment and rules. I love it because I know it means so much more, and discipline as a tool for lifestyle change works incredibly well. You do the thing because you laid out a plan and agreed to do it. You don’t wait to feel motivated to do the thing, even if the motivation comes easily at first. Because motivation is fleeting. You probably know this from experience.

SO shiny

Ever gotten all hot and heavy for some exotic new program or protocol? It’s SO FUN and novel at the beginning. You launch off that couch! You’re giddy as you lay out your workout clothes the night before. You arrive at the gym extra early, determined emojis all over your story. You feel so motivated to be there, and it’s intoxicating to actually want to work out. But behavior science tells us that your brain will be chasing that first hit of motivation forever more. And the science also tells us that you’ll never grasp it. You see? Fleeting.

You’ll enjoy it for a while, but the new inevitably wears off. You find yourself searching for reasons not to go, and eventually it’s just another workout you have to talk yourself into. Then you’re left searching for the next hit. From the couch. It’s why the fitness industry is so incredibly lucrative. Our relentless pursuit of workout motivation through shiny things.

We HAVE to get over this people. We can’t rely on the shiny things to help us do what we’ve committed to do.

Must do the thing

But what can we rely on? We rely on self control and solid patterns of behavior that work. Pick a plan you can somewhat stand and stick to the thing. Be disciplined about the fact that you have to show up consistently again and again to see results. Put it on your calendar and protect that mofo. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Time you spend talking yourself out of a workout is the time you’d have it already half done.

So stop it. Stop using a lack of workout motivation as your excuse to stay stuck. You have exactly ZERO control over how and when motivation will present itself. What you do have control over is your mindset about it. Put your head down. Do the work. Do it some more. For a while. Then and only then can you you look up and check your progress. Because by THEN you will have done enough of the work to enjoy some solid results, and that breeds an entirely new type of motivation. But that’s for another post.

Are you stuck? Need some accountability to get off the couch and out of the motivation vortex? Hit me up and we’ll customize a plan just for you!

 

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