My Motivation is Fleeting…Now What?
“I want to lose weight.”
“I really need to start working out so that I can keep up with my kids.”
“My family has a history of diabetes and I don’t want to end up with it.”
Not only have we heard people say things like this, but we personally have said these things as well. So we set out to make a plan to reach our goals. That initial excitement of the possibilities so we hit the ground running. We start out so motivated and then as quickly as it came, the motivation begins to dwindle. So what do we do when our motivation is fleeting? Can we even reach our goals when we are lacking motivation?
Motivation is defined as the “general desire or “willingness” for acting or behaving in a particular way. Motivation is strongly linked to a want or a need. It is a very internal process that creates the energy for us to DO THE THINGS.
But… motivation can be impacted by many variables. Stress, negative self talk, having a “full plate”, not seeing the results you want… these things can all effect your motivation. This is why we have to rely on good decision making and habit formation to help us reach our goals.
It comes down to making CHOICES (decisions).
The first thing you should know is that making a choice (good or bad) has less to do with emotion and more to do with science. Neuroscience!
We are inundated daily with needing to make a decision. Decisions are made in a very specific part of our brain. Each time we make a decision a link (so to speak) is made in our brain. As we continue to make decisions that create a certain pattern of activity, we begin to enforce and support that pattern, making it grow stronger and stronger. Our brain recognizes the pattern therefore creating a habit. Habits are formed in a completely different location of our brain than decisions.
Neuroscientists explain that when habits are formed, our brain actually has to work less. There is not as much brain power needed to follow a habit.
Some of the habits we form are “bad” and other habits are “good”. Just like some of the decisions we make are “good” and others are “bad”.
Let’s recap- Each time we make a decision we create a link, the chain of links eventually becomes a pattern, that in turn creates a habit and when we stick to that habit over a period of time, we create a routine.
(If you are interested in learning more about habit formation, incredible resources to check out include “The Power of Habits” by Charles Duhigg and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.)
But a lot can happen between the time we make multiple decisions, create a pattern, develop a habit and make it part of our routine. This is where motivation may become fleeting and those variables that effect motivation start creeping in causing us to deviate further and further from the path we started to create.
When this happens we need to rely on discipline. The biggest difference between motivation and discipline is ACTION. It’s doing the things we need to do even when we don’t want (or have the desire #lackingmotivation) to do them.
Discipline helps drive us in the face of adversity. When our motivation is dwindling, we need discipline to help us continue on the path instead of completely straying.
The most amazing thing about discipline is that it gives us CONTROL. When we become disciplined we are able to identify WHY we started doing something in the first place. We are able to actionably continue to work towards our goal and begin to remind ourselves of our desires, wants, needs and reasons. Discipline helps ignite the spark. Our motivation resurfaces.
Discipline is not easy to come by. This is where working with a fitness coach or nutrition coach can be extremely helpful. Here at Shift we not only want to help you stay motivated to reach your goals but we want to help you continue to show up for yourself in the face of adversity because the reality is… LIFE HAPPENS. SHIFT HAPPENS and it can knock us off our path to reaching our goals but when you have a coach who sees you and values your story, you can be supported in your journey.
Written by: Jackie Giese, your future coach!
