3 Elements of Motivation

Today I will take a look at the average persons progression through a fitness program, from the overabundance of dedication in the beginning right up to the ultimate failure due to lack of motivation a few months down the road. Let's explore the truth of what really happens.

Remember last new years when you made the decision to start that fitness program? You decided to start eating well on Monday morning and had a deep desire to make it to the gym at least 3 times that first week. After a few days your off to a great start! Two weeks in your seeing some result and you motivation spikes, you hit it even harder, doubling your efforts. Your now cruising into the fourth week and you decide to throw caution to the wind and eat fast food for lunch, heck you deserve it right? You can make it up with an extra thirty minutes on the treadmill. The next week you miss going to the gym because of family or work commitments. No big deal right? Well maybe not if we are mentally prepared, but most of us are just not aware that truth is this is when our motivation falters, this is when failure begins to set in. How then can we then create motivation over the long term.

3 ELEMENTS OF MOTIVATION

Goals-Most importantly, goals focus our efforts, goals give us a clear direction. Creating short and long term goals is our first key to developing motivation.

Intensity-Is the amount of effort we put forth in order to achieve our goals. Without clear goals this intensity will be misguided or possibly even non-existent.

Persistence-Finally we have persistence which we can look at as how long we can sustain the effort of accomplishing what we set out to do. Having the persistence to reach short term goals will obviously be much easier than reaching our long term ambitions. This is why when we accomplish our short term goals we will need to replace them with new ones. Each time this is accomplished we will ultimately be brought one step closer to our fitness objectives.

With a lack of any of the above 3 elements you will also experience a lack of motivation which unfortunately leads to failure. When we fail a few months down the road on our way to a better level of fitness it is most likely attributed to neglecting one of the elements which fosters motivation. So we need to ensure all of these elements are met and nurtured. Remember,the above components are important not only to achieve your fitness goals but also in your day to day life. Motivation is one of the main keys to performance.

In future article we will look at how we can create focused goals and how to reach the next level in intensity and persistence. Stay tuned.