The topic of motivation and fitness is a common one.
There is no better feeling than absolutely crushing it in the gym for a few months straight and seeing a life changing body transformation happen right before your eyes.
The realistic fitness journey for most is an up and down battle however.
I’m sure you have your days where you are super motivated, days where you are “kinda motivated,” days where you are tired and don’t really want to go to the gym, and days when you are flat out deflated and going to the gym and eating clean seems like the last thing in the world that you want to do.
In this article, I want to try and make sense of motivation and give you some action steps to stay on track.
Hopefully, on those days when you aren’t feeling your best, you can go back to this article as reference
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Workout with a Motivated friend or someone in better shape than you
I’ve had my days when I wasn’t that motivated and seen first hand how quick it can turn around when I train and go out to lunch with my “most fit” friends. Seeing someone up close who is in incredible shape and who is super motivated is an energy catalyst.
Fitness is all about who you surround yourself with. Try to find someone to be your fitness mentor, or even better your “workout partner” who can lift you up on days when you aren’t at the peak of your personal motivation.
If you don’t have a workout partner handy tip 2 will come in handy.
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Look at A picture of your dream physique every day
Looking at a picture on Instagram or social media of someone that you aspire to look like can really push you to remember why you are working so hard.
Fitness is, of course, a very visual thing, and nothing is sometimes more inspiring than seeing a picture of your fitness idol looking amazing and aspiring to look like that. While its important to not compare yourself to others – I look at this as a motivational tool and incredibly positive.
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Obsess over PROGRESS, not Perfection
You know what the number 1 dream killer is? Lack of progress! Perfection is for losers, progress is for winners! The people who achieve the most over the course of a few years make steady progress day in and day out.
Each day getting a few percent better will translate into an amazing fitness transformation. If your goal is weight loss and you lose 0.3 lbs. per day, that may not seem like much per day, but if you do the math that can help you lose 50 lbs. of fat in just 6 months!
Seek Progress, Not Perfection !!
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Have 1 Cheat Meal per Week
Don’t obsess over eating perfectly. It's not realistic to go the entire year without any cheat meals. Have some sort of calorie tracking system in place and you will have no problem rebounding from a cheat meal, regardless of how “caloric” it is.
If you are working out regularly 1 epic cheat meal won’t hurt you, just like 1 perfect day of eating won’t help you all that much. It’s all about what you do consistently.
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Embrace your New Lifestyle as Exciting and Amazing
If working out consistently and eating cleaner is a new lifestyle for you, you have to immediately connect positive emotions to it! Always remind yourself how fun and exciting it is.
Tell yourself that its AWESOME that you are getting in better shape each day and that this lifestyle is the greatest thing that ever happened to you.
When you think about it, being healthy and fit is the ultimate way of winning at life 24/7.
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Focus on the day to day instead of the end goal
All you have is each moment, and your decision in that moment. If you become obsessed with always thinking about the end goal and getting impatient you will lose your focus.
Be obsessed with staying in the moment and improving each day instead of getting overwhelmed with your overall fitness goal that you want to reach in 1-2 years.
The more in the moment you are, the faster you will reach your goal anyway!
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NEVER compare yourself
The only thing you should be is comparing how your momentum is from day to day. NEVER fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people and having negative emotions attached to it.
Guess what, we all have different genetics, different lifestyle, and different fitness goals. There is no “better” and you are falling into a dangerous trap when you start comparing yourself to other people and trying to figure out if you are “better” or not.
Who looks better is the most subjective thing in the world anyway. The most ripped and muscular person in the world will look bad to many people, so realize that there is no “ideal” look to a body.
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Make Yourself Accountable with a friend, make it Fun!
If you are on a shredding plan or have a specific fitness goal, have a friend tag-a-long and make it a fun contest. You don’t have to be super competitive with each other, but having a fun contest with a friend who has a similar goal will push you to your fitness goals faster.
External accountability is a great motivator!
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Keep a weight loss journey/diary
Try posting about your fitness progress on social media and make it a fun diary of your total transformation. Between Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube you have a lot of options to post your progress.
The cool thing about social media is you will develop some fans and extra encouragement along the way!
I hope these 9 tips will help you channel your motivation! Please connect with me inside the Facebook Private group and let me know what you think of these.