What drives you to get up at 4:30 in the morning to go do your workout? What helps you to take the left turn to the gym and not the right turn towards home after work every day? What is the burning desire deep inside you to reach your goal, to achieve that personal best, to perform every workout better that the last one? We all have different reasons for doing what we do everyday. Some days are better than others, but where do we go dig when all motivation drained out of you like a big hole in your petrol tank. Where is your reserve petrol tank? Who is going to tell you to put that packet of sweets down, get off the couch and get moving? Ultimately it is for you that you do it. You might be doing it out of fear, bad health when you get older and maybe an earlier than anticipated death, or your motivation can be positive, you might be result driven or goal orientated.
Have a list of reasons why you are training. Put this list up where you can see it everyday, remember, we are not perfect and you are going to feel tired, run down or just not in the mood for training. This is the time that you look at your reasons for doing this. It is very good to have deadlines for these reasons. It is always hard to look at a list and one of your reasons is “health benefits”. This is not always as motivational as “Holiday in 2 months” The holiday has got a concrete and non negotiable date on it. It is something that are getting closer every day, it is not as vague as health benefits. Another reason might be that pair of pants in the back of your cupboard. You can fit it once a week and this might just make sure you do not eat the whole pizza or drink the six pack of beer. These are visual goals and reasons and will motivate you more.
Put a reward system in place for yourself. This will go hand in hand with goal setting. If you have that pair of pants that you put on every week to see how it fits and you can see and feel the results, you can go and reward yourself.
Treat yourself to a new shirt or a pair of pants in your new size. Do this by putting a couple of rands into a jar every time you train. You will have some extra cash to spend on stuff that you didn’t anticipate! This is emotionally and psychologically important to reward yourself for a job well done. It will prepare you for another week of focused training and eating clean.
Use training and eating logs to keep track of your progress. You will be amazed at how many things you put in your mouth without thinking about it. These are needless calories that add up without you realizing it. By writing everything down, a couple of things will happen. You will think twice about putting that cookie in your mouth, you will start controlling how much you eat and you will start realizing that you eat a lot of empty calories and thus start cleaning up your diet. Training logs will show you what type of workout you did how much weight you are using, how long the workout took to complete and very important, how you felt during the workout. We cannot all feel 100% every day. It is very important to put an “energy gauge” or a “general feeling” comment on your training log.
Exercise must be FUN! If you do not enjoy your workouts you are going to stop doing them eventually. Make it more fun by making it a social event and train with the people you love and like. This way you will motivate one another and by having a training partner, you will have someone waiting for you at the gym at 5 in the morning and you will have no excuse to stay in bed. Another aspect of fun is to mix up your workouts. Don’t follow the same routine all the time, you will get bored and lose interest. By keeping the body guessing you will also see more results in your training. The body is a wonderful machine that settles into a routine very quickly and gets used to you doing the same thing all the time.
Use the great outdoors as your playground. Nobody said you have to do all your workouts indoors. Change the scenery and go outside. Do your workout in a park and use the playground swings to do your pull-ups. The fresh air will do wonders for your self-esteem and your motivation to train.
Challenge yourself. You are your own best friend or your own worst enemy and you are the only one to make the choice to be successful in your training routine and eating habits. Keep yourself motivated by following one or more of the above tips to reach your goals and be the best you can be.
