We stepped into the last week of January and the crowd in the gyms started to wane. Typical question often asked around this time:
“How to keep up motivation?”
We say we want to get motivated or stay motivated to train but we don’t actually mean motivation. We mean adherence.
Adherence is our success in sticking to a training plan.
Motivation is part of it, but it is just one variable in a multivariate equation. If we focus too much on the motivation, we might miss the big picture.
First of all, motivation by its nature waves. It comes and goes. You can boost it, sure, but it is impossible to keep high constantly. No one is motivated all the time not even the ones who are in the gym all the time. So, what is the secret? How come that they are still training while you are back on the sofa watching Netflix?
Those people are not necessarily more motivated than you, they are just more successful in maintaining adherence.
Adherence can be broken up into 6 constracts, there constructs occur in phases. Let’s review these constructs and the phases they occur.
The first thing you need is inspiration. Let’s not confuse inspiration with motivation. Inspiration usually comes from an external source. It is the spark that gives you to want to train. A success story you have heard of, an Instagram post you have seen or simply the recognition of the ‘not great’ shape we are in when the elevator broke down at work and we had to use the stair for 2 days. Inspiration is good for getting you started but it is not good for sustaining you longer than…a day usually.
This is where motivation comes into the picture. It is the inner desire to want to train. Fuelling your adherence day to day after inspiration has vaned. BUT! We all know that we can’t rely on motivation every day because it is waving. Having a clear, achievable set of goals, being around supportive people, always acknowledging results can help in keeping it high for a while…but still: it is waving.
Motivation keeps you up about the level of adherence that you need, but as it goes up and down, we need to establish a base level to define how much work we need to put in to consider ourselves adherent. This base level will be our watermark of doing a good job. This is our intention. Intention is a commitment to execute a plan. It is more than a goal. It is a roadmap. Without a roadmap, goals are just wishes. In other words: we need a training plan. Don’t overthink it but it must answer at least 2 questions: ‘What to do?’ and ‘When to do?’ “3 days a week I go to the gym after work.” Good enough start. If you have an actual training plan that tells you what to do on those days, better. If you have an “external” force like a coach or a training partner, even better!
It is a great thing to have a plan, but intention doesn’t enforce itself. It is still you who have to do the work to meet your intentions. Sometimes it is easy. There are days when you can’t wait to finish at work, grab your training bag and you are almost flying to the gym. Those are the days when your motivation is higher than your intention. But what about the other days? What about the days when your motivation is below your intention? Those are the days when you need discipline! Discipline is the willpower we use to meet our intention. It is closing the gap between our motivation and intention on our “low days”. How to boost discipline? Coaches, friends, music, regular de-load; these things can always help but the best way is knowledge and practice. Knowledge that there will be hard times and practice of overcoming on those.
Discipline is crucial for training, but relying only on discipline is not sustainable. Willpower runs out quickly and needs to be recharged regularly. We need our motivation to be close to our intention otherwise discipline won’t be able to bridge the gap repeatedly. That’s why we need to build habits. The habit is the automation of the training so that motivation waves a lot less. If training is a habit, it is creating less of a demand for discipline while it is increasing success rate and enabling adherence to be long term. So how do we build it? A sustainable training plan with regular and consistent training days will help, just like similar training time each day. For more about how to build a habit I recommend you to read the bestseller book of James Clear: Atomic Habits.
Habits are great constructs because they minimise the effort you have to put into a certain activity but still, there is one more construct that is even better: passion. While habits can only minimize the effort needed for an activity, passion can actually fuel our adherence. It is when you fall in love with the process. This is the ultimate goal. So how to do it? Train with friends or like-minded people, let the success of training get to your head, have fun with your workout. Help others. Take a break when it is needed and never let training become suffering.
The full cycle
