People often ask me two things: 1) how to get motivated to start going to the gym or start eating more healthy and 2) how to keep being motivated to go to the gym and keep up with the nutrition plan. The answer to the first question is simple – if you keep on waiting for motivation to suddenly come to you and kick your ass into the gym, you will be waiting forever. Motivation is in fact something that comes after you take an action. What happens is that you make the decision to go to the gym, you start liking the feeling and you start seeing result. When you start craving the endorphins that get released after a gym session and you start seeing the result, that’s when you get motivated. The biggest advice I can give to anyone that wants to make any lifestyle changes is to just start. Do not wait for the right time because the right time will never come. The mistake a lot of us are making when we want to make lifestyle changes like going to the gym or changing the diet, we want to wait until the right moment “after the summer vacation”, “after Christmas”, “when work becomes less stressful“, “when they have found a partner” or the best one “I will start on Monday”. But here is the thing – there will always be holidays coming up around the corner, work will always be stressful, and there is a Monday every week. That way, life events have the tendency to always get in the way of our goals – if we let them. If you keep on making exceptions (or rather excuses!) around these events you will never be able to stick to a change consistently. If you have decided that you want to make a change today, found your “why” and made a plan on how to execute the plan – start tomorrow. Regardless of what day of the week it is. When the holidays come up, continue to stick to your plan or take a little break and get back on your plan after the holidays. You will be motivated to do so because you had already started.
How do you keep on being motivated? You won’t. No one is motivated 7 days a week 365 days a year. And that is why you must stop relying on motivations to achieve your goals but rather start relying on your routines and habits. Create your own routine that works for you and that you can stick to. The key is to make your gym routine as ingrained into your brain as brushing your teeth is. Although you might not necessarily enjoy the act of brushing your teeth, you enjoy the outcome. In the same way you might not enjoy the act of going to the gym, but you enjoy the feelings afterwards. Or you might not always enjoy the act of eating healthy nutritional foods but you like how it makes your feel satisfied, full and energised.
If you want to make a lifestyle change – just do it and do it today.
If you want to keep up a lifestyle change for the long haul – keep on doing it every day until it is part of your routine and you do it without hesitation or consideration.
I often get asked how I always stay motivated to go to the gym and stick to my nutrition plan. And I don’t – I rely on my routines to stick to my plans.
Love,
Malin