There is not a single person on this planet who stays motivated for years on end. Motivation is a brief moment, and you'll barely even be started by the time it's over. Fitness is a slow, tedious grind. If you rely on motivation for your personal growth, you will disappoint yourself. You'll think that it's because you just weren't motivated enough, that other people who succeed are just more motivated, they're always motivated, they're excited to get out there every single day and work at improving themselves.
I woke up this morning after four hours of sleep, sat around in bed trying to go back to sleep for an hour or two, and then reluctantly got up. How motivated do you think I was? I was pretty motivated to sit around and do nothing. I certainly didn't want to get dressed and drag my ass out to the gym so I could watch my body fail to do things that I easily accomplished two days ago. No points for guessing what I did today.
The workout predictably sucked and I cut it around 70% of the way through my normal routine, but I still got a full body workout done. Because it doesn't matter what I feel like today, it matters that today is a workout day and that means I go work out. No ambiguity about it.
Motivation sucks. Let it go.
Because it doesn’t matter what I feel like today, it matters that today is a workout day and that means I go work out.
ie, motivation. Getting hung up on semantics doesn't make it 'not motivation'
What? No, motivation is a specific feeling where you suddenly feel like doing whatever difficult thing. This post is specifically about doing it even if you don't feel like it.
No, motivation is a specific feeling where you suddenly feel like doing whatever difficult thing.
What am I missing here? You don't sit around and say you have more motivation to just sit around all day, but decide to go to the gym anyways. There's a drive there to do so, despite your body wanting something else entirely. Doesn't make sense to me
I have no idea what your problem is. It's a very simple concept. Eat your vegetables because they're good for you even if you don't like them.
And it takes motivation to eat those veggies, especially if you don't like them
I'm sorry that God didn't send an angel down to bestow upon me the true cosmic meaning of the ancient holy word "motivation" as he did for you.
What I'm talking about is the situation I have seen time and time again where someone will start doing something, because they say that they feel "motivated" to do it. Then they stick with it for a short period, working at it consistently. Then, they stop. And you ask, "hey, why aren't you working on that thing today?" And they say, "Well, you know, I'm just not feeling motivated right now. I'll do it tomorrow." And then they don't do it tomorrow. Or the next day. Maybe they pick it up again a week later or something, once, and then they stop again. And the weeks turn to months and eventually you ask, "Hey, how's that thing you were working on going?" And they're like, "Well, I haven't really felt motivated. There's [xyz complication] and [excuses, excuses, and excuses]." And thus, they never achieve that goal.
Next time someone says anything like that to me I'll be sure to derail the conversation by repeatedly insisting that they're using the word "motivation" wrong. :thumb-cop:
It's not that big a deal comrade, I'm still having fun with it anyway. Ultimately it's a dumb internet argument about a word, I'm talking about angels descending from the heavens as the source of the argument lol
It's definitely important to take care of your body, and getting enough rest is a big part of that. Of course, your body doesn't get stronger while you're working out, it gets stronger while you're resting.
Sorry that I was being a bit snippy, I just kind of find internet arguments amusing so it's easy for me to forget that I'm teasing comrades here and might actually upset them. :soviet-heart:
You know what? I'm sry for having started this struggle session. It wasn't needed
I would say that that's being motivated by a long term goal to push through short term unpleasantness, but it's probably not important if people disagree about the word
you're right, for almost anything worth doing it starts with just consistently showing up when you're supposed to
Ironically you're making another semantic point by calling out their words instead of engaging with their obvious intended meaning. Their meanings of motivation and discipline are clearly defined in their writing.
Hell yeah, comrade. I've struggled with the whole,
You’ll think that it’s because you just weren’t motivated enough, that other people who succeed are just more motivated, they’re always motivated, they’re excited to get out there every single day and work at improving themselves.
myself, and it feels bad. So this post is good to help me :stalin-approval:
Of course you shouldn't make a habit of getting insufficient sleep. I certainly didn't choose to do that. Working out with insufficient sleep once isn't going to kill you. Deciding "I don't feel like working out today so I won't" absolutely will kill your routine.
I feel you, but sometimes its more important to practice going to the gym than anything else
As someone whose brain struggles with actually doing things, I never liked the "be disciplined" rhetoric.
Instead, I frame it as "you've got to practice going to the gym, and you will fail over and over, but as you get better at going to the gym you'll get a little more consistent."
That way, I could see my progress, and missed weeks or even months weren't a setback, just a sign I needed to practice again.
When I can't get myself to get dressed for the gym, I can often get myself to do some psuedo planche pushups or a few archer pullups, and that's practice too.
Discipline is hard, and you're going to have to practice it all the time.
