We’re well into the second lockdown now, and as much as we’d love everyone to be full of beans and smashing your to-do lists, we know that motivation may be dipping just a tad. And that’s okay.
When it comes to getting sh*t done, motivation is an unreliable character...
One minute you’re all revved up, going 100mph doing hill sprints every morning, the next minute your motivation decides to take a 3-week holiday extravaganza and you can’t think of anything worse than running up a giant hill in the dark.
So don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t feel ‘motivated’ to smash your goals right now, but do take a closer look at what DOES motivate you, and whether your goals are either:
Extrinsically motivated - I.e. Goals influenced by external factors (e.g. other people, friends or family), or pressure from social media to look a certain way (#jacked), or
Intrinsically motivated goals - I.e. Based on something YOU want to achieve for yourself, or something you really enjoy (e.g. doing yoga because it makes you feel good, or making a meal from scratch because you love cooking).
This is the sort of motivation that’ll keep you invested in the process and cultivate a growth mindset.
According to a whole collection of studies, when it comes to achieving your health & fitness goals and maintaining them long-term, the type of motivation you’re relying on has a pretty huge effect. Motivation from outside pressures will only get you so far, so we need that inner drive and self-investment for long-term change.
So you might be wondering, where the heck do I get this ‘intrinsic motivation’ from anyway?
What motivates you and gets you going in the morning will be different to everyone else! Have a think about the internal benefits of the changes you’re currently making - e.g. getting up early to exercise and meditate might make you feel mentally refreshed and positive for the day ahead. Try to reflect on these feelings of fulfilment each time, even write them down as a reminder of why you started doing them in the first place.
Ultimately, if you’re intrinsically motivated to do something you’ll be more likely to enjoy the process and stick to it. So if you’re not feeling motivated to do your usual things right now, concentrate on doing stuff that does actually make you happy and feel good in the long term (staying in bed and skipping a session might feel like a relief temporarily, but in the long run you’ll benefit both physically and mentally from getting it done). From there you can start to change these bursts of inspiration into habit, and no longer rely on fleeting moments of motivation to get shit done!
Is there something you do every day that keeps you going when motivation is at rock bottom? Let us know in the comments guys, you might be able to help someone else that’s struggling this week!
