Paige Harris Motivation is a feeling, and like all feelings, it comes and goes. So ditch “motivation” and try these tips for healthy living instead.
We’re two full months into 2019 — how are your New Year’s resolutions going? If your immediate response is “What resolutions?” don’t worry! There’s still tons of time for you to accomplish your goals.
If you’ve been feeling the New Year’s motivation withering, know you’re not alone.
Most people think that motivation is the key to achieving any goal. But if you ask me, that isn’t true at all. Motivation is a feeling, and like any feeling, it’s going to come and go. I know for a fact that I don’t feel motivated all the time. It’s unrealistic to think that anyone is!
So instead of waiting for motivation to strike, I take a different approach: I create habits. These habits are what keep me healthy, happy, and sane! By finding happiness and reward through habits, I’m able to constantly change my goals by manipulating my habits so that I’m never bored or uninspired.
If you attach motivation to a specific goal, you pigeonhole yourself. You think you can only be happy if you achieve the goal, no matter how crazy it is. And if you do attain it, it makes it hard to keep pushing forward. For example, you can only get so strong in a certain lift or run so fast in a race. If you continue to set super definitive goals like this, you might find yourself struggling to find the motivation to reach them.
But you can remain healthy forever and change goals periodically, especially if they go alongside habits! For example, I have the habit of going to the gym at least 3 times a week. To stay motivated, I change the focus of my sessions changes every so often. I worked on strength and hypertrophy for the last half a year or so, and now I’m changing my focus to more strength and conditioning.
I also try to find joy and fulfillment through doing my workouts, not from the results they provide me. Although they do provide many benefits — increased energy, strength, and happiness! If you’re spending your time doing workouts that leave you feeling drained or uninspired, try something new.
Exercise should enhance your life, not suck it away.
Setting the bar too high is another mistake people make when trying to live a healthier lifestyle. For example, you don’t need to go to the gym 5 days a week right off the bat if you’ve never stepped foot in one before. You don’t have to cut all sugar out of your diet all at once if you’re used to having tons of it each day.
Remember that small changes add up, and the outcome of your small habit multiplies as time passes. If you start out going to the gym twice a week, that’s two more times per week than you were going before! Add another day after a month, and you’ll see even more positive results.
Another common problem with goal setting is that you feel restricted by it. If you set the goal of eliminating sugar from your diet and your friends are all going out for donuts, it can be really tempting to turn them down. With these kinds of “bad habits,” the immediate outcome is favorable (you get to eat a donut) but the ultimate outcome is unfavorable (you feel guilt about it and are further from reaching your health goal).
It’s the reverse for good habits. Going to bed on time means that you can’t stay up late to finish off that Netflix series. Short term, your outcome is unfavorable (you’re missing the show) but long term, you’ll have gotten better rest and will feel better because of it.
So if you want to start reaching your goals, you need to find a way to pull the long term rewards of good habits forward to now.
You need to be able to feel some sort of success, no matter how small.
One tip I like to use is to give yourself some sort of external reinforcement at that time. Habits of avoidance are hard, after all! Let’s use cooking as an example. Every time you say no to a night out when you know you have food waiting for you at home, switch the money you would’ve spent on dinner into a savings account. Once you hit a certain goal, use that saved money to buy yourself something nice. You deserve it, after all!
When your goals involve food, it seems like they become even harder to achieve. A lot of the time that’s due to people in your life sabotaging you by outwardly judging your food choices. “You’re not going to have any cake? Wow, you must have so much willpower!”
In situations like these, it’s important to remember that there’s a difference between willpower and wanting to feel your best when it comes to making healthy choices with eating. If you know that eating sugar in the middle of the day makes you feel sick, it’s okay that that’s more important to you than the cake. It’s okay to tell others that you do this because you want to feel better. That you know the consequences if you eat that food, and you’re choosing to avoid them.
And don’t forget: one slip-up shouldn’t turn into a new habit.
You don’t need to have an all-or-nothing mentality.
If you eat “badly” on one day, you haven’t “ruined” the previous 6. Two steps forward and one step back still means you’ve stepped forward!
And remember to start small! One good habit builds another. If you join a new gym where the members all eat a certain way, you’ll be more inclined to eat that way when you’re with them. And as you spend more time with them, your habits will reflect theirs. It will get easier! And remember:
Good habits don’t limit freedom, they create it.
If you have good habits, you reap the best rewards. When you get yourself to bed for a solid seven hours per night, you’ll be awake and ready to tackle anything that comes up in your day. If you hit the gym three times a week, you’ll build muscle and keep your metabolism strong. Making good choices now will keep you happy and healthy for life.
So instead of waiting for motivation to come to you, start small and build up some healthy habits instead. After all, we’re only twelve weeks from June, the unofficial start of summer!
