Habits can affect your levels of motivation, so how can we maximize them to stay motivated in our goals?
We have all had those days at the gym where everything feels right. On these days, we can hit high percentages (or perhaps even PR) our lifts. Gymnastics movements feel smooth, and our metcons and conditioning pieces are finally NOT burying us alive. On these days, motivation is at an all time high as we feel we are mastering CrossFit.
And then, we walk into the gym the next day to find ourselves stumbling over our feet, struggling to hit ‘easy’ loads on the barbell, and not able to catch a breath during a workout. With a sinking heart, we believe that contrary to our previous day’s success, we are somehow getting worse at CrossFit.
This is not true, of course. Bad days are just another part of the process, just like the good ones. And most days will be neither amazingly good or terribly bad, but just a slow, mundane plod along our journey.
Our levels of motivation will come and go, just as the waves of good and bad days. To stay disciplined and on track in our journey, we can find ways to maximize the days of high motivation, while also realizing that motivation itself is just another habit we need to form.
How Outside Factors Affect Motivation
When I hear the word motivation, I think of a strong pull toward my goals that allows me to “give it my all” in the gym. But there are days this pull is not there, and I have found that I need to look outside the gym first to see if external forces are to blame.
For example, after a day (or a few) of poor eating, my energy is low. I feel sluggish, and the last thing I want to do is workout. If you can recognize how your eating habits affect your performance and your overall mood and energy, you can allow yourself more control in how ‘motivated’ you are. If you are interested in how nutrition plays a role in our fitness, you could look into personal nutrition coaching.
The same can be said for sleep and external stress. Of course, there are many instances where some of these factors are simply out of our control. If you do feel that to be the case, that is when we need to take a step back and maximize what we can, even if we don’t feel particularly motivated to do so.
Something is Better than Nothing
As mentioned, there are times where you feel incredibly unmotivated, even after maximixing all the external factors that were in your power to do so.
These are the days where it is all too easy to talk yourself out of going to the gym.
What has worked for me is reminding myself that something is better than nothing. Get into the gym and move for twenty minutes. If you can, go on a long walk.
Sometimes, the act of moving gets us motivated. Sometimes it does not, but we can still realize that just a little bit of movement is better than none. We can get it into our heads that we have to workout for an entire hour, and when we don’t have that, we give up on the day.
If you have ten minutes, use that. Use whatever you can.
Even a Bad Day gets you close to your goals
The worst days at the gym can still teach us something. They are never a waste of time. So, on those days where you feel nothing is working out like it should, remember it is part of the process. Instead of letting it get to you, understand bad days are just another stepping stone.
When we can approach our journey in this way, it will lead to more days of high motivation, and it will alow us to continue during the more difficult times.
Think of Motivation itself as a Habit to build
You may have heard the saying ‘discipline over motivation,’ referring to the idea that most days you will not feel motivated, you must be disciplined to continue chasing your goals when you would rather do anything else.
I agree this is important, but it has also helped me to think of motivation itself as a habit to build.
Discipline will get you into the gym, but repeatedly practicing giving each and every training day your all (even if you ‘all’ is only half of what it is on a good day) will help build your levels of motivation.
Get into the habit of being uncomfortable, and embrace that part of your journey. There will always be bad days, but we can use them to our advantage. Nothing worth having comes easy, so whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability. Force yourself into a motivated state even when you are far from it. And as always, have fun doing it.
