Motivation - IT’S YOUR FUEL

Motivation is our fuel. Everything is good and easy when you look forward to your training, you’re having success and seeing constant improvements, and you enjoy the company of your training buddies and coaches. Your motivation-tank is full. However, we all know our motivation for training goes up and down over time and can be one of the biggest prohibitors from progress with our fitness. It’s inevitable, we will have highs and lows with our training. So what happens when our tank is empty? Are you still motivated to train when you haven’t hit a PB (personal best) in 6 months, your favourite coach moves away, or you start getting bored of the same workout routine?

Often we create excuses for slacking on training like, “I’m exhausted from work”, or “I’ve run out of time today.“ Sometimes these are valid excuses, and if working 9 and a half hours instead of 9 hours that day takes priority over a 30 minute ‘sweat-out’, then so be it. But more often than not we tell ourselves these excuses to feel better about not training, when deep down we know the time and energy really would be available, if only we had the motivation.

The real challenge is continuing to progress while our motivation tanks’ “empty light” is on. It’s important for us to develop our OWN methods to stay motivated and not make our motivation dependent on outside factors. These methods need to be specific to you, as we all have different reasons, goals and priorities in our training.

Some examples that can help you get re-motivated are…

…setting achievable goals
…reminding yourself ‘why’
…surrounding yourself with the support you need
…making changes in your routine

Continually improving our health through fitness requires consistency. Nothing great is produced in a short amount of time. Dips in motivation often force us to take some time off training or lower our intensity, which can sometimes be a good thing to avoid over training. But if these periods are too frequent and/or too long, then we will start going backwards with our fitness.

It’s as simple as that: habits are a big part of how we live our life from day to day. So don’t let avoiding fitness become a habit. Hold yourself accountable. Find a way to not let a dip in motivation hold you back from fitness. Refill your tank!

-

#TahiThoughts