Mind your Motivation

Will you be ready to shed some clothing this summer?









This type of motivation works for some people. Okay, truth be told, all of us are motivated in part by vanity, so if the thought of bathing suites makes you concerned, by all means get naked in front of your mirror and see how you feel. Now lets look for more motivation.

Everyone's motivation is different and it will change over time as we play sports, get married, have kids, experience health problems, age, etc. so we need to get in touch with what our main motivational drivers are. Below is a list of common motivational categories to help you figure out your top three:

• Look Good: Improving Body to Feel More Confident
• Look Good: Improving Body to Attract a Partner
• Look Good: Improving Body to Impress at an Event
• Feel Good: Energy, Confidence, Mood
  
• Feel Good: Aging Well, Staying Active
  
• Good Health: Decreasing Risk of Preventable Disease
• Good Health: Decreasing Stress and Related Effects
  
• Doing Well: Optimum Athletic Performance
  
• Doing Well: Optimum Career Performance

Once we have an idea of our top 3 fitness motivation drivers then we can take it a step further by attempting to deepen our emotional connection and commitment to them. Take the 3 broad motivations and ask why, making them as specific to you and your situation as possible. We want to get as personal as possible looking for the deeper emotional root of this motivation.

For example, if you want to shed body fat on your tummy to feel more confident and attract a partner, maybe underlying this is that while growing up you never felt sought after for whatever reason (true or not). If you are ready to change your body then you need to be ready to change that underlying feeling so get in touch with it, draw energy from it to keep you moving forward. For others motivation might be more internal, looking to drop risk of heart disease so you can remain active and enjoy all of their years. For others who already pretty fit, the motivation might be the amazing energy and confidence they enjoy from being fit and living a healthy lifestyle. Whatever it is, get connected with the emotions underlying it be they fear, anger, love, confidence, etc. and find a way to use them in a healthy way to fuel your healthy lifestyle.

Motivation is the foundation of our ability to sustain any healthy lifestyle, fitness program and diet, however even with strong motivation some people tend to falter so we also need to learn how to Set the Fitness Habit in my next enewsletter.