Motivation is one of the five key areas of MindWork (link to 5 key areas) and plays a major role in whether or not you’ll succeed at losing weight, sticking to a diet or exercise routine, or just maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
What is motivation
You probably already know what motivation is. Or at least you think you do…
Motivation is the desire to achieve a goal.
No matter what stands in the way of you and that goal, you can overcome it.
When you are motivated, it’s like a superpower. Your mind pushes you forward. No matter how many setbacks, no matter how many failures, you will succeed.
It’s this burning desire that just won’t be satisfied until you reach your goal. Whether that’s achieving your ideal weight or sticking to a healthy diet, your motivation overcomes any distractions along the way.
Be careful not to confuse motivation with enthusiasm.
Remember the last diet you went on? You were hugely excited at the start. You told all your friends and family how this was the diet to get you into that new dress.
Then a week later, you gave up.
Well, that wasn’t motivation. It was enthusiasm.
That initial rush of excitement quickly wore off. And when it did, there was no motivation to continue. If there was, you would have pushed through and reached your goal.
Enthusiasm is temporary, motivation is permanent.
Enthusiasm is your mind rewarding itself for the thought of achieving your goal. Not for working towards your goal.
Once effort is required, your mind turns the enthusiasm off, and you are left with an overwhelming desire to give up.
But if you were motivated, that initial desire to succeed doesn’t wear off.
Unfortunately, a lack of motivation is one of the main reasons why people cannot achieve the healthy lifestyle they want.
So, in order to lose weight, you need to be motivated. Simple, right?
Well, not really…
I’m going to let you in on a little secret:
Motivation isn’t easy. And your mind is going to do everything it takes to break your motivation.
Consider these examples:
- You’d love to lose weight, but keep finding excuses not to or reasons why you can’t.
- You’d love to exercise more, but watching Netflix is more enjoyable.
- You’d love to eat a healthy diet, but junk food tastes too good to give up.
Your mind is rewarding you for not working towards your goals – rewarding you not to be motivated.
You see, your mind actually enjoys being lazy. It enjoys predictability and routine. It finds comfort in knowing what is going to happen next.
And your mind LOVES comfort.
It loves comfort so much that it will resist anything that it considers to be uncomfortable.
But your mind has a good reason to love comfort…
Your mind sees any change in diet, any extra effort spent on exercise or losing weight as something that could be harmful. Because there was a time when this was true!
I cover this concept in more detail here.
To your mind, spending an hour at the gym, dripping with sweat and tiring yourself out is a bad thing. It would much prefer to lie down on the couch and scroll through Instagram or Facebook.
But how your mind gets you to give up is actually pretty sneaky.
Have you ever had the thought:
“This exercise is too hard, everything hurts, let’s give it a rest for today”
Or maybe…
“Okay, we have done a few minutes of exercise, now let’s go get a coffee and a banana bread”
This is your mind trying to bait you to trade the hard work you are doing for something it finds more comfortable.
But if you are motivated, you can push through these tempting thoughts and reach your healthy lifestyle goals.
And if you aren’t motivated?
Nothings going to change.
It’s not easy to be motivated when your mind wants something different.
Think about how good it feels to lie in bed all day and watch Netflix. When you are in that moment, it’s hard to imagine doing anything else, right?
This is your mind rewarding you for being comfortable.
Why would you want to lose weight if doing the opposite feels so good?
I mean, to you, it’s an easy question. You would be healthier, slimmer and happier.
But your mind doesn’t want to give up this comfort. So it works against you in an effort to stop you from changing.
You cannot stick to a diet, keep an exercise routine, lose weight or lead a healthy lifestyle without motivation.
The Motivation Scale
Unmotivated – Motivated – Obsessive
Think of your emotions as being on a scale….
On the one end of the scale you have:
Unmotivated
You know you should do something about your health and weight, but you can’t get excited about it. Even taking the first step seems like too much effort.
Example:
You buy healthy food with the intention of eating better and put it in the fridge. It stays there untouched and eventually goes off because you eat fast food instead.
And while it’s much less common in regards to weight loss, on the other end of the scale you have:
Obsession
You are so fixated on a goal that you spend all your time and effort achieving it. So much so, that you don’t put effort into maintaining other areas of your life, such as relationships or your work.
Example:
You are obsessed with achieving the perfect body. You spend countless hours at the gym each day. When you come home, you are too exhausted to speak to your wife, or tidy up around the home.
The more the scale tips in one direction or the other, the more your motivation will work against you.
In order for you to achieve your healthy lifestyle, you want to balance this scale. The more balanced your motivations are, the more likely it is that you will succeed.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose where you sit on the motivation scale. Your mind has already done this for you, using a whole variety of life experience since you were born.
Your mind’s desire for comfort can make it impossible for you to stay motivated on achieving a healthy diet.
To put it simply, your motivation levels are specific to you. They are shaped by your upbringing, your environment, your genetics and what you find comfortable…
Your motivational needs are unique. And to balance them, you need a unique solution. One that is tailored just for you.
That’s where MindWork comes in.
MindWork focuses on identifying and balancing your motivation l levels.
Through one-on-one support, advice and strategies, you can balance your habits once and for all.
Never again will your lack of motivation cause you to:
Are you ready to build the unbreakable motivation needed to achieve your weight loss goals, stick to a healthy diet and routinely exercise – and enjoy it?
MindWork is the first step to living the healthy lifestyle you always dreamed of.