There is no doubt that motivation is an important tool when it comes to changing something in your life, whether it’s fitness, business or even plucking up the courage to ask someone out for a date!
But what happens when motivation dwindles? I’m sure we have all gone through motivation issues in our lives, often our drive and adherence drop off and we end up mentally feeling down.
How can we combat this though?
I’ve come up with an analogy that will help you understand the motivation vs results cycle!
It’s like building a campfire!
Inspiration is the Spark!
This is the initial “Eurika moment”, the moment you decide to do something, when you see something online that gives you a business idea or someone tells you about their successful weight loss journey.
Motivation Fires You Up!
You can think of motivation as the firelighter blocks, as soon as the spark of inspiration is planted in your head, then motivation skyrockets to 100%!
Action / Habit formation!
Think of taking action and habit formation as the kindling, the lighter blocks (motivation) will go out quickly if they are not supplied with additional fuel, so they need to start burning the kindling to allow a full fire to take shape. These are the habits needed in order to complete the goal successfully.
Lifelong habits!
Lastly, once action and well-formed habits are executed long enough they become almost automated. These are the slow-burning charcoals, keeping the fire sustained all night.
It’s important to top up the fire now and again to keep it going however it’s a well-established fire that will stand strong in the element.
A poorly executed plan would simply be lighting the firelighter blocks with the spark and forgetting to take your kindling and charcoals. There would be a little warmth but for a very short period of time until the firelighter blocks fizzled out.
Many people (myself included) rely on motivation as a crutch, as soon as something untoward happens our motivation goes down, that crutch is then swiped from underneath and we fall flat on our faces.
So, as you can see, motivation is just very a small piece of the puzzle. The 4-part cycle above is what we would consider as a well-executed plan.
A perfect example of well-formed long-term habits is cleaning your teeth. We don’t even think twice about brushing our teeth twice a day (I hope you do twice a day) it’s so in-built into our daily routine.
This very method of habit formation could be used for our health and wellness routines, entrepreneurial ventures, or any serious goals we have in life.
So to summarise a solid path to success:
1) Let inspiration get you excited
2) Allow the excitement to get you motivated
3) Let motivation quickly give way to action/habit formation
4) Continue until they become non-negotiable lifelong habits
About The Author
Rob Donker is a fully qualified personal trainer, nutritionist and lifestyle coach. He’s the author for coachedbyrob, with over 13 years of experience in the health and fitness industry.
He has a huge health and wellness advocate. His passion is motivating others to live long, healthy and fulfilling.