Motivation doesn’t work
So my wife Sam and I are visiting our friends in Jacksonville right now, we’re absolutely loving it here (we always do).
The heat, the sunshine, the beach, the uncomfortable humidity, the American flags, the doped up trucks that don’t even have 4 wheel drive, the accent - we love it all.
We’ve had several people reach out to us in the last few days say “sorry to bother you on vacation but….”. The truth is, we aren’t on vacation - at least in the traditional sense.
Besides my in-person clients at Motus Strength Health Club, I am working as usual out here and making sure my online clients through Valeo Fitness are looked after without a hiccup.
Sam has been working full time online for a couple years now so her work doesn’t change at all during travel.
Truthfully, we both love what we do. Like we really love it. So taking time off really isn’t necessary. And to be honest, we legitimately wouldn't enjoy it.
So all that to say: we are on our non-vacation vacation lol (or work-from-Florida trip).
Sam and I were talking over the last couple days about how consistent we are with our fitness and health during travelling or weekends away. Typically, it’s vacations, travel, weekends away, and other trips that often throw people off routine and then also off track with their fitness.
And understandably so. But there is a solution for you if you’re someone who can relate to falling off track with your fitness during travel or maybe even struggle with staying consistent in the first place, and catch yourself starting and restarting over and over again.
There are some things Sam and I automatically do no matter where we are that helps us stay on track and makes it easy to keep on top of our fitness. A checklist of sorts, that makes it easy.
We were also reflecting on WHY we are able to be consistent as well as HOW…
As for why, I want to share a bit about that here (it’s going to be a little conceptual and heady).
As for the how, I am going to save that for next week (it will be a little more tactical).
So HOW do we find it easy to stay consistent with our fitness and nutrition during travelling?
I think it simply comes down to the fact that we care about our fitness and health. Like a lot. Not just saying we care. We genuinely DO care. It matters to us enough to be an extremely high priority and non-negotiable one at that.
And finding ways to stay on track, even when off our usual routine, is something we WANT to do and even enjoy (enjoying something makes it easier to do, shocker).
When you truly care about something then it immediately becomes a higher priority than other things and you don’t rely as much on the ever-elusive buzzword “motivation” to keep you on the straight and narrow.
That’s a huge one in the fitness world - MOTIVATION. Everyone and their cat is looking for motivation so that they can finally achieve their goals and experience the body of their dreams (or whatever else their goals are).
Everyone is looking for motivation. I hear new clients talk about it all the time. On our initial gameplan call it often comes up.
“How do I get the motivation to achieve my goals?”
“And how do I KEEP the motivation once I DO get it?”
Wrong question to ask. It comes from the wrong premise. Motivation isn’t a thing to care much about at all in my opinion because motivation comes and goes. One day you’ll feel like you are invincible and the next day you feel like you won the biggest failure award.
Relying on something that isn’t steady is like loving your spouse only when you feel like it. Instead, find something steady and attach your goals to that.
The correct premise to start from is based on what YOU care about. And the correct question to ask is “WHY do I care about it?”. This is how we find something steady.
Ask yourself these questions…
And then reflect on the values you care about.
If you can connect your priorities (the things you claim to care about) to the values you hold (the reasons why you can about them), then motivation is obsolete. And you can finally give up on searching for the ever-elusive “motivation” as your magic key to finally achieve your fitness goals.
If you want something, you will prioritize it above other things. The more you want something, the higher above other things you will prioritize it. Simple right?
And the flipside is true…
If you say you want something but you are never consistent with prioritizing the things required to get it, then you don’t really want it. Also pretty simple right?
This is why motivation is useless to search for. Or at the very least it’s not helpful to put on a pedestal as the cure to fix your years of inconsistency.
You’re much better off forgetting about motivation altogether. You don’t need motivation. You need to connect what you really want with your values.
Here’s the simple breakdown of what you need to do (and probably have never done it once yet):
You need to be VERY clear on the things you want to get
Then get VERY clear on WHY you want to get them by connecting the things you want with your values.
That’s the magic.
It’s not motivation. You don’t need it. Trust me, it hasn’t worked well for anybody still looking for it.
Hope this helps you. And if it does, I hope it gives you some clarity around the elusive search for motivation.
If you have any questions about this or would benefit from further clarification then just DM me on instagram or send me an email (contact info below).
Much love,
Tim
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