Motivation is a funny thing. Everyone wants to know how to get it. When they are talking with me, it is in reference to working out or eating healthy. But motivation isn't something that you go get. When it comes to fitness, it really can't be given to you...unless I buy a gun and start threatening clients with their lives just to get them in the gym.
Recently I heard that a friend had gained some unwanted pounds. I offered to have her come to the studio and train with me (of course) and I'd help her get rid of that extra weight. Her response was pretty simple: "I am hard to motivate." Ever since then I have been pondering the idea of motivation.
The woman who claimed to be hard to motivate is a former business owner. To start your own business, one has to be MOTIVATED. She got out of her business because she was ready to do something else. She was MOTIVATED to do something new. She is MOTIVATED to participate in agility training with her dogs. Clearly, she is not hard to motivate. She simply isn't interested in working out.
mo-ti-vate (moh-tuh-veyt) - v. 1. to provide with a motive or motives; incite; impel
mo-tive (moh-tiv) - n. 1. something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc; incentive
She, and many others, are looking for someone (a personal trainer, perhaps) to cause her to act in a certain way: training, choosing the right foods...yada, yada, yada. I tend to believe that the MOTIVATION has to begin internally. Making a personal change is not an easy process. Doctors, family members, friends can tell you all day long that you need to quit smoking/start working out/eat healthier foods/etc, but you aren't going to pay attention to it until you believe it yourself.
KNOWING and BELIEVING are two different things altogether. We all KNOW we should be active daily. But the capability to honestly see/feel/believe that the reward is greater than the risk is different in each person.
In my example, she doesn't like the extra 8 pounds, but she is willing to put up with the 8 pounds rather than put forth effort to lose it, at least for the time being. Her point of taking action might be when she has an extra 12 pounds, or even 20 pounds.
We are all MOTIVATED to do the things we enjoy doing. We find personal satisfaction in different things. I enjoy sitting in a classroom learning about how the body functions and I enjoy Leg Day in the gym. I am more MOTIVATED to train with weights than to go for a run, because I enjoy it more.
The secret to being MOTIVATED to be active and/or lose weight is to find what you enjoy about it. You may not like working out, but you do like fitting in your favorite size 8 jeans. The end justifies the mean. Once you develop good habits, and begin noticing how differently you feel (stronger, leaner, can run farther or faster, emotions are more stable, clothes are more flattering....), you may find that you actually enjoy working out.
Motivation for fitness and health has to come from within. Until you find it, I guess I'll start practicing at the gun range that is on my way home from school.
"You will never leave where you are, until you decide where you'd rather be." Dexter Yager
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