How To Find Motivation...

It's a common request around here...

"I need motivation."

Motivation is a tricky thing because I think people think of it more as an extrinsic thing rather than an intrinsic thing. 

I truly believe that motivation comes from within. 

Sure, it's nice to have the daily external accountability, and the pushing from a coach during your workout to do more, but that's not motivation. 

True motivation comes from within...

It's what you wake up with, it's the fire in your belly, it's what brings tears to your eyes. 

So...

How do you find it?

You find it through action. 

An action isn't just the effect of motivation; it's also the cause of it. 

Most of us commit to an action (go workout, eat better, etc) only if we feel a certain level of motivation. 

We feel motivation only when we feel enough emotional inspiration.

We think we have to get inspired first, then motivated, and then the action occurs.

If you want to accomplish something and you don't feel motivated or inspired to do it, then you think you're done, checked out. 

However, I'm going to challenge you to look at things differently...

Action > Inspiration > Motivation

Meaning, the inspiration, and the motivation stem from the ACTION. 

You get motivated by just doing something, anything really. 

And then the chain reaction beings and you find motivation. 

Do you ever feel like not cleaning?

Then you start by just reorganizing one cabinet, and that snowballs into five hours of reorganizing your entire downstairs. 

Forcing yourself to do something, anything, regardless of how small or menial the task is, quickly ignites inspiration, which causes motivation to get the larger tasks done. 

Do something. 

A lot of people in fitness think they struggle with motivation.

It's really that they struggle with action. 

They try to muster up the motivation to workout 3x per week and change their entire nutrition. 

With the above "do something" philosophy, it's about small actions.

You're not going to just wake up one day with all this motivation to tackle the world. 

However, you can muster up the action to start going for a walk at lunch. 

That snowballs into improving your lunch time meal. 

That leads into preparing better dinners. 

That trickles into joining a gym and going 1-2x per week. 

And so on...

It starts with action. 

Motivation is not something that just drops from the sky one day. 

Remember...

Action > Inspiration > Motivation

That's often all that's necessary to get the snowball rolling, the action needed to inspire the motivation to keep going. 

You can become your own source of motivation and inspiration as the action is always within reach. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling