Motivation Will Fail You

Working out is something you should be doing for the rest of your life. Motivation works really well to get you started, but it will fail you sooner or later. You need to figure out a way to keep working out when your motivation is low.

This time of year a lot of you will kickstart your exercise habit. It’s a little different now, and maybe you’re not going to sign up for that gym membership. Maybe you’re planning to work out at home, or start running.

At the start your motivation will be high and the workouts will be fun and easy. But after a few weeks, typically 4 to 8, your motivation will fade. This is when most people quit.

Here’s a couple of tips to keep going when you lack motivation.

Celebrate

Celebrate your personal victories to people that boost your confidence. If that means a selfie on Instagram or a text to your mom, do it.

Disco Friday

I typically do compound lifts like benchpress, deadlifts, and squats. I like that, but it’s also kind of serious boring workouts. Sometimes I need to give myself a workout ‘treat’. For me that doing a session with only chest and biceps. Find your ‘Disco Friday’ workout that’s not so serious and focus on the fun.

Cheat

If your goal is to workout twice a week, but you see that you’re not going to reach that goal. Cheat. Change the goal to once a week. If you’ve set your goal duration to 6 weeks, but you’re sick the last week. Cheat. Edit the goal to be 5 weeks.

Träning

To help you with your workouts I’ve made the app Träning (download here). It helps you with setting and tracking workout goals.

Good luck!