Motivation.

Motivation is a term we so often use to explain our mental state. “Oh I am just not motivated to go to the gym” but what is motivation and why do we so heavily rely on it to govern what we do or do not do.

Now, I feel I must state here that I am the number one culprit for the latter statement and of late it seems that the lack of motivation is to blame for every issue I encounter. To be fair, I’ll list a few of the topics for which I have had no motivation to achieve.

1.     Doing anything I’m ‘supposed’ to do

2.     Washing my car

3.     Doing washing

4.     Walking up the stairs

5.     Studying

6.     Writing this blog

7.     Eating right

8.     Going to the gym

I could easily keep going, but to ensure that my readers do no lose all faith in my abilities, I will stop.

Okay. So this is what I know about motivation- it’s made up of two aspects, Intrinsic and Extrinsic, which refer to where one’s motivation is sourced and how it is driven. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that exists within an individual and is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself where as Extrinsic motivation is driven by external motivators and refers to the performance of an activity to achieve an outcome. So based on that I can see that it is my extrinsic motivation that is waning and it is this that I need to strengthen. But how does one reignite motivation to achieve set goals?  

I often find myself ‘falling off the wagon’ and losing site of goals that I set for myself, however I usually only fall of said wagon when it comes to health and fitness but I always manage to pull myself together and start over. But I have to admit; I am becoming weary of continuously starting over. Lets take my trip to Greece as an example. I am a planner; I will plan the shit out of things. I am a classic reflector and basically have a spreadsheet for everything. I easily practice the Sic Sigma methodology and when stress and confusion arise I am quick to employ the use of a pros and cons list. So I carefully calculated the weeks until my trip to Greece and planned a method to achieve my ideal bikini body. I was doing extremely well and managed to spread the word and spark a fitness frenzy among my friends. I maintained this habit for months and then all of a sudden, nothing. I just stopped. I blamed it on a cold that I justified was the reason I could no longer attend the gym and by the time the sickness passed I had lost all motivation. Its now 16 days until I depart for my summer adventure and I am in a worse place than I was when I started.

So its here that I investigate the reasoning behind motivation, because mine is fickle and has led me astray.

I’m currently sitting in my usual coffee shop, taking a sneaky flexi day off work (thanks work) to take control of all that is stressing me out and ready myself for my upcoming weeks of excitement and change. I have decided to create my own methodology for reigniting my extrinsic motivation.

Step one. Identify goals. What is it that I need to achieve in the coming 16 days, once I identify the necessities and I can plan (ha plan) a way to achieve these goals. Okay, so for the purpose of this post I am going to focus on the goal that is concerning me the most- health and fitness. I’ll admit I have, of late, been putting my body through absolute torture and basically indulging in everything I am not supposed to. Crap, the admission of self-infliction.

My health and fitness goals include the following

1.     No alcohol. Yes, here it is for all to see! My best friend has this month decided to partake in dry July, I have essentially lost my drinking buddy so this goal should be easier to achieve than normal. The benefits of my abstinence from alcohol include; the elimination of useless calories which equal excess kilos, deeper pockets, better absorption of vitamins and nutrients and assistance with my next goal…

2.     No sugar. The white devil. Sugar has become my heroin and my addiction to this substance is doing absolutely nothing for my liver or waistline, so sugar my evil friend you are out!

3.     Caffeine. I am eliminating caffeine to give my liver a bit of a break. Our livers are responsible for the elimination of toxins from the body and also the metabolism of fat. If our livers spend too much time working on toxins then little time is spent on metabolising fat and I don’t know about everyone else but I want my liver to spend a hell of a lot of time metabolising fat.

4.     Following on from caffeine is smoking. A habit I have picked up of late, and one that is not only affecting my bank account but also my health, so smoking you are out.

5.      The gym. The gym was my happy place, a place I attended without second thought or qualm. So to restore our relationship I will visit my boyfriend every day for the next 16 days to give my body the kick it needs, starting today.

So there we have it, five extremely difficult goals for me to adhere to for at least the next sixteen days. I’m not going to lie, this is going to be difficult and it’s going to be absolute hell, but in search of better things it must be done. And for those of you around me during this time, I apologise in advance.

<3 benny.