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1) Discipline beats motivation
Motivation is doing something when you feel like doing it, discipline is doing it even when you don’t feel like doing it.
The problem with solely relying on motivation is that it fluctuates so much from day to day, even from hour to hour. For the vast majority of people, motivation is not a reliable tool to use to get yourself to the gym. Because it depends on your mood, your emotions and how you feel, it's near impossible to build real consistency through relying on motivation alone.
If weight loss is a race, and the finish line is reaching your goal weight, motivation would be the starting gun. It’s what gets you going. But discipline is shifting your focus on taking the next step, consistently, until you've finished the race.
Don't get me wrong - Motivation is very useful. Like I said it's great for getting people started and can also help you get back on the horse when you're starting to fall off, but it should be part of the plan - Not the WHOLE plan.
The most consistent and therefore successful gym goers are not those who rely on motivation. They focus on building self discipline over time. Which brings me to my next tip...
2) Improve discipline through your environment
If you’re thinking ‘but I’m not a disciplined person’, you're wrong.
You don’t have to be inherently disciplined to reap the benefits of self discipline. Instead, you need to find creative ways to alter your environment to make the option of staying disciplined as easy as possible. People aren't born with a magic power called discipline. They work on it consistently and create environments that remove temptation for the wrong action and promote the desired action.
Here’s a few examples:
Take an alternate route home that doesn’t pass the local Maccas. Keep your fruit in plain sight, not at the back of the bottom draw of the fridge in a plastic bag. Lay your gym clothes out the night before. Put your alarm for the morning on the other side of the room.
Altering your environment is, we think, the most valuable way to create habits and build long term success. Don’t be afraid to get creative.
3) Accountability
Keeping yourself accountable can be the difference between falling off track and steering back towards your goals.
Whether you hire a personal trainer, start going to a group class, get a training buddy or even post your intentions to social media, having someone that cares about you to keep you accountable is an absolute game changer.
One great way to keep yourself accountable is to schedule your workouts into your calendar and treat them as actual important meetings. Then next time someone asks if you can grab a coffee during your usual workout time, or you just don't have the energy to turn up, your calendar can be a reminder of the plan that you've already committed to.
4) Building habits - Educate yourself
When tough times come, and as we all know they always will, we usually fall back on our deeply ingrained habits. The problem is, often these habits aren’t aligned with our goals and where we want to be.
But here’s where most people go wrong - They jump straight into attempting to build habits without a real plan of attack, which usually leads to short term success and long term failure.
We suggest educating yourself on habit forming techniques. A great place to start is by reading or listening to the book ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear. It’s an easy read and has so many quick, actionable steps you can take to form new habits successfully.
5) Celebrate the small wins
When it comes to weight loss, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of setting your end goal and only celebrating once you get there. If that end goal is to lose 40Kg, it can be a long wait before you’re satisfied!
Many studies have shown that those who celebrate the small milestones on the path to success are more motivated and more successful in the long run. As well as this, whether we’re celebrating a small win or a big win - They both feel the same.
So instead of waiting to lose 20Kg to lose weight, focus on losing 1kg - Celebrate that win - Then repeat this… 20 times. Honestly, we celebrate some sort of win in nearly every single personal training session we do and it makes a huge difference.
6) Develop your ‘Why’
Your 'why' is the reason why your goal is so important to you. If your why is strong, when you’re feeling unmotivated, all you’ll need to do is turn to your why and it will pick you up and keep you going. This is a great way to stay motivated to lose weight.
Here’s a quick exercise to strengthen your why. Start with what you think your current why is. Then, ask yourself ‘but why?’ Repeat this 5 times. Here’s what that might look like:
Iteration 1) To lose weight. But why?
Iteration 2) To feel fit and healthy, like I used to. But why?
Iteration 3) So that my kids actually look up to me. But why?
Iteration 4) To lead by example and show my kids the importance of good health. But why?
Iteration 5) Because I would do anything to help my kids be healthier and happier.
If we compare iteration 1 to iteration 5, I know which ‘why’ would make me get out of bed in a cold morning!
Try strengthening your why and see where it takes you.
7) Remove comparison
One of the biggest killers of motivation is comparing your journey to someone else's journey. Sometimes life can feel like a ladder, with everyone fighting to get to the top the fastest.
But in reality, life is like a field. We all start in different positions, we all move at different speeds, there is no end destination, but we are all moving in the same direction - forward. It’s important to stop focusing on how fast others are moving, even stop focusing on how fast you’re moving, and solely focus on taking your next step forward.
8) Fall in love with 'The Hunt'
At The Pride, this is something we try to ingrain into every single one of our members. So, what’s the hunt you ask?
The hunt represents the journey.
“The man who loves walking will walk farther than the man who loves the destination”
Real results take time. Years and years of consistently turning up and giving it your best. So if you're going to put in years of hard work, you might as well enjoy the ride!
9) Anticipate the set backs
This may sound a bit pessimistic, but you will fall down. You will take 2 steps backwards, you will lose and you will fail. As long as you learn from your failures, they’re no longer failures - They’re lessons.
Anticipating these failures in advance means when things don’t go to plan, you don’t completely fall off track. Instead, you have a back up plan - A guide to getting you back on track and moving forward towards your goals.
Understand that sometimes you’ll say ‘screw it’ to your diet and you’ll overindulge. This will happen, it’s just a matter of time. So prepare for it! When this happens, how will you get back on track without returning back to square one? Who will you turn to? What could make you turn back around? It's worth investing some thought into this.
If you liked these tips, join our mail list at www.thepridenz.com where we educate our members every week on different fitness and nutrition topics, for free.
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