Motivation doesn’t work for everyone

When people hear ‘motivation,’ they often think of classic incentives like youtube training videos, before and after pics, and maybe the occasional pep talk. In truth, motivation is elusive because it so often depends on the individual and what makes them tick at any given moment.

Oftentimes, when we talk about setting & achieving a new goal, we mention the motivation for what got us going on this new path. The problem is that won’t keep the ball rolling once it hits an uphill.

Motivation is a wonderful thing to take advantage of when it strikes. It gives us unusual powers of focus and productivity. Use that when it’s around. The only thing is that motivation is going to wear off, sooner or later.

It feels incredible to want to make a huge change, but change is hard. And that excitement will wear off when you start doing a type of training or sweaty exercises you don’t like doing. Burpees are a good example that most people hate. It’s unrealistic to rely on this motivation alone to achieve our goals. This is where discipline comes in.

And since developing new habits and becoming more disciplined with your goals isn’t easy it’s best to set a small goal first, to help your brain learn and focus on this new process. For example, rather than setting a goal of going to the gym every day for an hour, you could start with going to the gym every other day for just 10 minutes at a time.

It takes discipline to put your gym clothes on, and walk to the gym. Although it may seem pointless, it’s worth it! You’re actually setting down the groundwork to create a good daily routine. Eventually, once you’ve achieved this first goal, you might feel like increasing your workout time to 20-minutes, then 30-minutes and so on until it becomes a habit to do a full workout at the gym.

Discipline will help you to form your healthy habits; however, we also know that people who exhibit the most self-control, actually enjoy the habits they pursue. It appears this is the winning combination.

Discipline will take you places where motivation can’t.