No matter what activity you want to start or project you want to succeed in, motivation remains the essential driver that keeps you following your plan till the end. Without sufficient motivation, you will lack energy to move forward and you will eventually throw in the towel, abandoning your goal. Training and achieving a physical goal are no exception to this rule. Chemically, the body releases a hormone called dopamine responsible for providing motivation. It is the regular production of this hormone that pushes you to move and take action in the direction of achieving a goal. In this post, we are going to go over the factors allowing you to build a strong motivation, which lasts over time.
Visualize a result
Everything begins with defining a clear and precise objective, to visualize the result that we would like to obtain. The first question that must be asked is: why should I train? Should I do it for wellness and health? To improve the aesthetics of the body and feel better about myself? For personal improvement? Or perhaps other reasons? In all cases, the desire to train must be associated with a goal and come from a deep and burning desire which prompts you to take action. We don’t train because someone does it, to please a person or to follow the social medias trend of these recent years. If this is your case, there are chances that you will end up stopping someday.
Visualizing the destination you want to reach and remembering it regularly will order your body to produce the necessary dopamine and be motivated to do so. That is why it is always important to set clear goals and write them down somewhere where you can remember them all the time. No need to define a single goal that cannot be reached in a short period of time. It would be better to split it down into achievable short-term objectives and to continue on the path after each goal realized. After this essential step, the following question is: how is it possible to maintain motivation or even strengthen it until the desired result is achieved? The answer is in the following paragraphs.
Motivation by getting results
The first source that drives motivation is getting results. The more the result is optimal and closer to the target, the more your motivation will increase. Before continuing further, let’s analyze the following cycle :
As seen in the first paragraph of this section, the first step is to define a clear goal splitted down into mini goals which are achievable in a relatively short time. As soon as your first objective is in mind, the first motivation comes and give you the drive to take action. This is when you have to go hundred percent and work regularly (training and nutrition in our case). The purpose is to keep going forward until the first results appear and start again towards the next goal.
Achieving this result and achieving the goal will boost your motivation by encouraging you to invest further effort for a new result. By repeating this cycle over time, you will achieve your goal, or approach it at worst. Obviously, the more you advance, the more difficulty will increase. At this point, you will have to persevere (I invite you to read my post about mental attitude).
Surround yourself with positive people
People around us greatly influence our mindset and the way we act in everyday life. Reason why you need to have positive people in your social circle. Meeting people who are passionate about sport and who train regularly, can only help you find motivation to train. Taking inspiration from your motivated friends or family will boost your motivation. It is also important to have a training companion who can motivate you when needed. If you never find anyone in your entourage motivated for training, follow people interested in sports on social networks (I invite you to follow me on Instagram :)). Following people who bring you enriching and inspiring content will give you motivation to work hard on your goals. You will also have the opportunity to take advice and improve your knowledge in the areas of training and nutrition.
Change the environnement
In order to start and last in the practice of sport, it is important to create the adequate environment to do so. Creating this environment requires planning your days in order to allocate time for training, meal preparation, rest, and all the other activities of daily life (work, studies, family, .. .). Frequenting a gym or any other training place with a good atmosphere and which puts you at ease can certainly boost your motivation. When your motivation starts to drop, it may be a good sign to make some changes. If it is not advisable to make radical changes, making a few adjustments to training and diet could completely boost your motivation and allow you to start on a new basis. Sometimes just changing gyms or training locations can boost your motivation and get you back on track. Finally, do daily meditation and allow yourself a few minutes to converse with yourself, to question yourself in order to improve, will have a beneficial effect on your motivation.
Sometimes, you need to go against the torrent
The moment your motivation starts to let you down, the desire for working out leaves you. This is the moment when you should never give up. Even in the days when you are not in the mood to train, you have to go ! Indeed, this negative feeling generally only lasts for a short period before your session. Perhaps, just by starting your session, the hormones of happiness will be released and you will regain the desire for training. Something that would not have happened by giving up your training from the start.
Motivation by passion
Now we reach the final level of motivation: passion. At this level, training becomes similar to a natural need. When you wake up in the morning, you no longer wonder if you are going to work out that day, but it comes by itself and even becomes part of your DNA. But reaching this level of motivation requires several years of practice and the presence of results in the short and long term. Even in periods when your motivation starts to decrease, your passion for sport and the pleasure felt in training, will lead you to always continue until the achievement of your greatest goal . You will no longer perceive sport as a restrictive or painful activity, but on the contrary, you will experience it as a great pleasure !
