Motivation comes and goes, habits stay the course.
When motivation is lacking it’s easy to look at your gym membership coming out of your account each month and think “why am I paying for something I’m not using?”
But do you do that when you throw away the mouldy bag of spinach/insert relevant vegetable here every week/month. Do you question your ability to spend £50 on a deliveroo every week rather than prepare a meal of your own. Do you question spending £100 on a night out that writes your Sunday off?
You get my point.
You need to change your thinking and you need to change it now, motivation is a consequence of taking action.
Until you can understand that, you will always struggle with motivation.
The love for exercise is not the exercise itself, it is the feeling after, the camaraderie built with others during that can only be noticed or measured after or the physiological results of exercising. Everything gym goers love about ‘exercising’ has nothing to do with the exercise itself in fact, most people who regularly exercise whether they CrossFit, powerlift, Run or Hike would probably enjoy any physical activity just as much as long as it contained those factors listed above.
Common feelings prior to exercise, more specifically CrossFit are often anxiousness , nervousness, feeling nauseous along with a little dash of excitement. Enough to put anyone off attending, give yourself a break.
HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED
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Friends : Get your friends or loved ones involved, send them a text the night before and book onto the same class together. That get’s you here which is an action and the action will be enough for you to want to repeat it. “Same time tomorrow?” “Sure, that was great fun.”
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Put a gym bag full of kit in your boot : Just be prepared, it takes 10 minutes to go ahead and pack a gym bag with everything you might need, trainers, gym kit, bottle, towel, grips, extra pants maybe some deodorant. Your busy day is someone else’s every day and they still got to the gym so just be prepared. Treat your car like a wardrobe.
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Thinking : Watch the film ‘About Time’ it’s one of my favourites. There is a scene where the main character lives each day as normal but then chooses to relive the entire day by heading back in time only this time, he decides to take notice of all the great things around him across his day. The result is that at the end of each of those days he is a completely different person to who his wife later on that evening. You have to teach yourself how to think more positively in your day. When you do, you’ll find going to the gym, cleaning your house, making food and choosing difficult tasks all the more easier.
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Action : Just do it (Nike please don’t take legal action). There is a reason Nike chose that phrase, actions come first motivation comes last. Remember the feelings you feel after exercise, hold onto that and just get yourself to the gym. It’s as simple as going to the bar with your mates, you turn up and the bar tender will get you a drink, you turn up to our gym and the coach will get you fit. Just do it.
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Treat your membership like health insurance : Don’t look at it, it’s a necessary cost, it’s the incase you get hit by a car, incase you become ill, it’s incase you have to work from home again and you can’t stand your four walls. The gym is an outlet, a disease prevention agency, a healer, a socialiser, a club, a community and a place that cares about your health even when you don’t.
