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In this article we are going to fire up your fitness motivation muscle by taking a deeper look into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Quite often I will ask my Facebook Live followers “What is your biggest struggle?” About 50% of the time the answer is “staying motivated”.
I want to drop some quick tips that may be helpful to you in this area.
First, there are two basic areas we need to take a look at…Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation.
Intrinsic fitness motivation tools:
Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. In other words, the motivation to engage in
a behavior arises from within the individual because it is internally rewarding. It makes you feel a certain way…a way that works for you. Intrinsic motivation includes things that make you feel pride, accomplishment, autonomy, mastery and a sense of belonging and being loved.
Let’s look at tips form each style of motivation:
1. Choose a Strong Reason Why…
Get emotional about it. Create a reason for your goal that really stirs you inside. I have one client that chose to give up her long time Cherry Coke Zero habit as a tribute to her mother who passed away as a result of bile duct cancer. As she told me her story she was a little bit teary eyed. Once she made that decision to devote her cause to her mother’s memory the soda habit was quickly ditched and the fact that her body felt so great without it served as further motivation to keep going.
2. Try it on!
How will this new goal look and feel? What will you be able to do when you lose weight or build muscle. How will your life be improved? Visualize these things. Visualization has amazing benefits. When our mind can see it, we can achieve it. Write down the answers to these questions and devote just a few minutes each day to picturing them in your minds eye
3. Write it down
This tip goes along with the visualization by taking it a step further. Don’t just write it down but create a vision board for your goal. Include images and words on the board that really evoke a strong positive feeling toward what you will feel when you obtain the goal
4. Compare Apples and Oranges
Make a list of how you feel now. Include feelings about where you are currently when it comes to your happiness, physical health and strength, stamina and how comfortable you are in your own skin. How are these feelings affecting your life? Write down any things that you can’t or won’t do now because of your health or fitness. Now, make the same lists for how you WANT to feel and jot down some ideas about what you can do to get there. How will life be improved?
Read on to learn about extrinsic motivation…
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Extrinsic Fitness Motivation Tools:
Extrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. This type of motivation arises from outside the individual, as opposed to intrinsic motivation, which originates inside of the individual. Examples of extrinsic motivation would be rewards, prizes, words of affirmation received, acknowledgement by peers, money or even the fear of being seen as a failure by others.
I always find it funny but awesome that my personal training clients get motivated by a sticker chart when we do a challenge at the gym. I love it because it is so simple but effective! Here are some of my favorite ides for extrinsic motivation:
5) Pump up the Jam
Download some new tunes. Make a post on Facebook and fined out what other people are liking and help a brotha out by sharing your own faves. New music is a cheap easy way to freshen up a workout
6) Speaking of freshening up a workout
Find a new workout program to do. As a personal trainer I change things up in the gym about every 4-6 weeks. Sticking to a specific style of workout for this period of time gives the body something to adapt to but if you drag it out too long it doesn’t need to adapt any more. Our minds need a fresh change in about the same amount of time as well. Every time I change up a routine I not only get excited to go workout for myself but I get excited to go to work and see my clients shake it up
7) Have a plan
If you walk into the gym with no idea what you are going to do today, it is no wonder you’re not feeling motivated. When you have a plan to execute upon hitting the weight room you know exactly what to do, if you’re on course and when you are done! There is a certain reward in finishing up what you came to accomplish.
8) Set daily reminders
Make a pop up reminder in your phone or on your computer to remind you why you are doing this.
9) Accountability is GIGANTIC
Having someone to check in with can be a huge motivator. It can feel lonely when you try to do it by yourself. If you fall off the wagon there is nobody watching so it is easy to never get back on. Choose someone that loves you and is in support of your goals (or has their own similar goals). you will be able to relate to each others struggles and accomplishments. Make sure you pick a person that won’t be too squishy with you. Choose a person that will push you a little but not so much that you will get discouraged, frustrated and want to give up to get away from your accountability partner.
Hiring someone can be a great accountability tool to spur on fitness motivation. As much as I would love to believe that my clients come to see me solely because of my witty personality and sparkling sense of conversationalism (lol)…It is really because there is money on the line! I can tell you that time and time again when I discount or give away personal training sessions people are not NEARLY as motivated to get to their sessions because it has not cost them anything. They have nothing to lose.
I have a private new Facebook group that I love because the concept is to keep local women motivated to do a new thing every week to keep them moving toward their goals. They’ll post both their wins and struggles and encourage each other to get through the tough days. I make weekly challenge posts, we’ll share local events that will help us all stay fit and healthy, we’ll find new workout buddies and more. I wanted to create a place where women can help women get up, get out, and get moving and to ENJOY life. Too many times we get too busy and forget to enjoy the life that we are busy creating!
10) Do the research
The premise of my work is this: Knowledge inspires motivation. This definitely applies to fitness motivation. When you have a plan you have more confidence. I truly believe that when I can teach my clients why something works they are MUCH more likely to do it. I really encourage you to learn as much as you can about health and fitness from reliable sources. When you own that knowledge for yourself, when you have worked to gain it, the light bulbs will turn on one after the other causing “Ah-Ha!” moments left and right! THAT is when change occurs. THAT is what gets me excited as a trainer!
Looking for an excuse to get started?
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a behavior arises from within the individual because it is internally rewarding. It makes you feel a certain way…a way that works for you. Intrinsic motivation includes things that make you feel pride, accomplishment, autonomy, mastery and a sense of belonging and being loved.
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