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.

    • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      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:

        • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          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: