What to do when we lose motivation?

Motivation is fleeting.

Motivation is not something we can rely on but it sure is great to have! It hits us fast but over time it dissipates and that is unfortunately normal and expected. The true test of spirit is to overcome this hurdle by attaching an emotion to our “WHY”.

What is your “why”…what are your reasons for wanting to change? List your reasons.

Then…add an emotion to it. Why am I asking you to do this? Because our why needs to be partly emotional especially on the days you’re not going to want to take action. There’s got to be a really important reason that can overtake the feelings of “I don’t wanna do anything but lay on this couch today".

We need to take action when we really don't want to. When we sacrifice the now to have a better tomorrow.

We tend to overthink situations which lead us to not doing anything because there are always competing priorities. I'd like to share with you some thoughts and tips that have saved me during the times I lost my motivation. For the record I am NOT motivated to workout and eat on point all the time. I am human and I am not perfect. The key to my success has been to incorporate my daily habits into my lifestyle so it's literally part of me...from practicing my daily habits for a long period of time it evolved into Intrinsic motivation and it is part of me forever. Part of who I am now. I don't just preach it, I practice it. So it's not a matter of if I want to do it, but I'm on "go mode" most of the time. Yes I do have months during each year where I legit don’t wanna do what I need to do but on most days, I’m on it. I'd like to show you how...

Motivation Action Plan

• 1) Remember your WHY. What is your why and what is the emotion you attached to it? What made you want to get started on your health and fitness journey? I know it's been a minute, but think back to that time when you took action and signed up. What were your reasons? I'm going to guess it might have been to get healthy, to keep up with your kids, to prevent disease, to gain muscle, to lose fat, to increase mobility, to gain strength, to maybe decrease your biomarkers such as cholesterol or high blood sugar readings, to feel good in your clothes...think back. It's important to reflect on our why.

• 2) Get a planner or use the calendar on your phone or set reminders/notes of whatever it is you want to accomplish. One example could be getting a planner and planning out 2-3 days of gym workouts this week...and when you go and do your workout, you check off that you did it. It's like a "To Do List"...check off that you did it when you do. Or how about setting reminders on your phone to drink your water, or to get your steps in (especially on the weekend...my step count is significantly lower on weekends too...so now I set reminders "Patty go outside to get your walk in". Simple and concise reminders! Fun fact, studies have shown that we are 42% more likely to achieve our goals if we WRITE THEM DOWN. So start writing...in a planner, journal or your phone.

• 3) Let's break it down. One of the reasons I use to not make it to the gym when I first started is that I did not organize myself well. So I always had an excuse like "My gym clothes need to be washed" or "I don't have time to get all my gym stuff ready". Ok...so here's what I did. I started setting out my gym clothes out the night before (now I do it for the entire week, but that's just me LOL). So set out on an area that you can dedicate to your gym clothes setup. Set aside your leggings/shorts, sportsbra, tank top/t-shirt, sneakers, socks, headphones, gym towel and make a neat pile of this for the days you want to make it to the gym. Breaking down tasks into smaller and more manageable tasks is realistic, and it's great to see your own effort and this way there's no excuse. Let's make it simple for ourselves. Let's get organized!

• 4) Focus and think about the present and what you can do today. Completing small tasks daily and weekly will give you the motivation you need as you will find that building these daily habits is really the key to staying consistent. There's no magic to this. It's simply doing something repeatedly for a long length of time. If you can do this, you will be successful in anything you want to accomplish.

• 5) Be your biggest fan (although I am a HUGE fan of you...I am your cheerleader...I want to see you succeed!).

  Look at how much you've grown so far, the strides you've made in your professional and personal life. Work takes continual progress, even on the days we don't want to. 6) We can't rely solely on motivation. Motivation actually stems from doing...taking action. Just like you feel good after your workout, well that's because you got up and did it. Remember that great feeling of accomplishment the next time you're thinking "ugh I don't wanna go". The worst workout is the one you DON'T do. Even if you get to do something at all, it's better than nothing.