Top 10 Tips For Motivation

"How do I keep motivation up”

“How can I be one of those people that are always motivated”

“How do I reach my goals”

And although everyone’s circumstances differ, there’s a few tips that every person can put into practice.

We’re talking along the lines here of motivation for reaching a fitness goal or milestone but really it can relate back to anything.. furthering your education, business, career, health, anything really.

So let’s start at that start.

Motivation…. motivation is what drives you towards a goal, it’s what keeps you going on the days where it seems tougher than normal, it keeps you turning up. We can have loads of different types of motivation, from negative to positive (Positive will always work best in the long run)

But let’s look at negative motivation for a second… negative instant motivation is something like going for a walk down a country road, climbing a gate into a field, walking straight across the field, getting half way there when you spot a nice big angry bull that just layed eyes on you at the same time, let’s say he starts to trot towards you and picks up pace, would you be motivated to run as fast as your legs can carry you. Possibly the fastest you’ve ever run in your life? Motivation!

As I said earlier, positive motivation works better in the long run, positive motivation mostly comes from yourself, nobody wants to hop into a field with a 1000lb angry bull everyday….. I suppose you would get fairly good at running tho (I googled the weight of a bull, they can get that big!)

There’s no magic formula that ‘motivated people’ unlocked and are just not telling us about it. Or at least they haven’t told me yet.

We’ll all get surges of motivation, even the laziest of us, the trick is keeping that motivation up as best you can

The following is 10 tips to keep the motivation up when it does come

1. Have a CLEAR goal…
Why are you going the gym? To get healthy? Why? To feel better? Why? To have more energy for my family…….. ‘You’re going to the gym to improve on your own health so you have a better longer happier family life’ saying that to yourself in the morning might stop you from hitting the snooze.

2. Write that goal down!
Physically, PEN & PAPER. There’s something about physically writing something down that brings it to life. Now put that piece of paper somewhere you can see everyday

3. Get Excited...
Get excited and proud about getting closer to that goal, you don’t have to reach the goal to celebrate, celebrate the little wins… the little wins add up! You’ve 30lb to lose? I want you to celebrate the shit out of that very first pound, and every single pound after. Imagine waiting until all 30lbs were gone before celebrating… no thank you. Want to finally get fit… I want you to give yourself a Pat on the back each and every time you head to the gym, a week of a few gym sessions? An even bigger Pat on the back. Want to get strong? Did you just bench press a weight for 12 reps that you struggled to get 8 reps with a few weeks ago? Awesome! Craic open the bubbly! Not really but you get the jist

4. Google is your best friend...

‍If motivation dips Google a success story of someone that achieved your goal… I’ll bet you a double sausage and egg mc muffin that their whole journey wasn’t smooth sailing. A stormy sea makes a great sailor… the highs and lows are part of the journey. There’s a quote in there somewhere

5. Workout Buddy

Get a buddy on the same journey, confide in each other, let them know when you’re struggling, and be there when they need the pep talk back at them

6. We Are Here

Following on from point 5… your coach is always here (any of the coaches here in primal are always available for a chinwag) as I’m sure the coaches are in your gym if you’re not in primal. Discuss a goal, let us know you’re struggling, whatever it is, we’re here to help

7. Set Mini Goals...
When you’re gathering momentum and ticking of mini goals like there’s no tomorrow, up the ante for a period… for example you’re nailing your 5 portions of fruit/veg per day consistently… could you push that to 6 portions for the next month? I would feel insanely smug if I ate 6 pieces of fruit & veg in a single day

8. Check back in on the bigger picture.‍

Seems like a silly one but record your progress and check back on it regularly. Sometimes we have to take a step back and realise we’re actually doing a smashing job. Didn’t progress this week and feeling a little deflated? Look back and see how much you’ve progressed in the last 8 weeks.

9. Be honest with yourself‍

Realize you have weak points, put mini plans in place to get by them. Some people MUST exercise on a Monday or the week goes to shit…. Some people MUST exercise on a Saturday morning or their weekend is a disaster.. make a non negotiable with yourself that you train on those days. Personally I NEED to take the dog for a walk fairly early in the morning, if I don’t by lunch time my motivation to hit 10,000 steps is in the gutter. Sounds silly and it’s only a little thing but it’s plain to see, the dog gets a walk early, steps are nailed… the dog doesn’t get a walk early, I’ll start pulling excuses out of the hat as to why I should take a rest day, and what’s worse is I believe myself a lot of the time. Weak points, address them, make a plan, no more weak points.

10. Don't Give Up!

We all get urges to throw in the towel, but more often than not there’s a trigger beforehand, take note when you get the urge to throw in the towel… soon enough you’ll see a pattern and know what is triggering you. Busy day in work on a Friday? does that usually make you go home and go around your kitchen like pac-man? Maybe have your favourite meal prepped and ready to rock on a Friday evening?

These are tips, these are suggestions, I’d like to say, do all this and you’ll never go ‘off track’ But life happens, we’re all human, one meal won’t make or break it, one missed training session won’t do much either. Just because you have a day the odd time where you glue yourself to the sofa and watch back to back box sets doesn’t mean you’re not motivated, it means you’re human.

What you do often steers the ship, what you do the odd time has little to no effect on the journey…. - not a quote but kinda sounds like one

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