Tips you use to motivate yourself

lporter229
lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Feeling a bit of a lack of motivation lately. In fact, I am sitting here right now procrastinating on my run. Would love to hear your tips and tricks you use to motivate yourself on those days when you're just not feeling it. I'm usually a "Just Do It" kind of person, but I have to admit, it really is a lot easier when I have some bit of enthusiasm about it!

Replies

  • colorfulcoquette
    colorfulcoquette Posts: 94 Member
    I've found signing up for challenges to help keep me focused. I'm currently doing 2 challenges on Pacer, a step based one aiming for at least 10,000 steps every day and a distance one where my goal is to hit at least 6 miles a day. It gives me an extra push to keep going because if I'm a slacker for a day I won't hit 10,000 steps every day for the month and once I've hit that goal it doesn't take that much more to make it to 6 miles.

    We get milestone badges for the challenges and I decided when I signed up for them that I wanted to obtain the highest badges for the month (other than aiming for the top competitor ones which I know is beyond me). Those are 'Perfect Score' for the steps and at least 300 km (186 miles) for the distance. The steps challenge keeps me easily in line for distance one :)
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    Having a goal in mind definitely helps. Lately I am all over the place with my goals and as a result my motivation is fading. It can help to write out your goals and set steps to accomplish them.
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,115 Member
    I have some lovely new clothes that are too tight, I regularly try them on and each time they are a little closer to fitting
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    I don't enjoy the grind of training. Training is, for me, just a means to an end. So for me to be motivated... I need
    1. A goal that matters to me
    2. A goal that I believe is achievable
    3. A training plan suited to that goal

    If any one of those things is missing, I'll probably end up on the couch with Amazon Prime and pile of food.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    A little personal vanity, kept to myself, helps. I am still at the stage where I can hardly believe I have done this. I didn't bulk up much and don't want to, but I can see almost every muscle on my arms and shoulders as an individual bulge. The marvel of this will wear off and then it will take discipline. There are things I enjoy doing in warm weather that I need to stay in shape for.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    Having a goal in mind definitely helps. Lately I am all over the place with my goals and as a result my motivation is fading. It can help to write out your goals and set steps to accomplish them.

    Same. I am three weeks out from my next marathon, which may explain why I am a little burnt out. But I also did not really set a goal for this race, so I have been doing the planned training runs, but without any real gusto and now that the race is approaching I just kind of feel like "meh". I purposefully decided to not set a goal and just run with some friends to take some of the pressure off myself and relax and enjoy, but in all honesty, I kind of feel like it backfired. In doing so, I seemed to have zapped myself of any real enthusiasm for this race.

    Thanks everyone for your responses. It kind of confirms for me that having a real goal is important to me for motivation.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    edited October 2018
    I definitely need challenges to keep me motivated (and even though I'm sidelined from running at the moment, I was definitely starting to feel less enthusiastic with getting up at 4am and banging out 5-8 miles before work several days a week as part of 50k training).

    Things I've done to keep me motivated are taking a group exercise class at the gym that I enjoy, looking for fun/interesting/different types of races, and reading blogs/articles/books about running. Also, setting a new goal (distance/speed/splits) also keeps me in the moment.

    Hope that helps @lporter229. Honestly, thinking about people like YOU and others in the monthly challenge thread keeps me motivated!

    ETA: It's also fun to have something like new socks or new somethings to run with. I love waking up and thinking, "Hooray! I get to wear my new headband today!"
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    fitoverfortymom wrote: »

    Hope that helps @lporter229. Honestly, thinking about people like YOU and others in the monthly challenge thread keeps me motivated!

    Thanks for this. That right there is great motivation!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    One of the things I remind myself of when I'm procrastinating about lacing up is that I've never regretted getting out the door and banging off a few miles but I do feel crappy if I slack off for no good reason.

    100% this... I'll need to remember it as the weather gets worse! :laugh:
  • kdbulger
    kdbulger Posts: 396 Member
    I download a podcast I can't wait to listen to.

    I tell myself that if I'm still hating it after X time (10 minutes if I am feeling run down, 20 minutes if I'm pretty sure it's just a mental barrier) I can quit. I almost never quit.

    I remind myself how much more energy I have when I'm finished, and how grouchy I get when I just let myself sit around.

    I switch up the activity - for example, instead of running I will walk and consider it a "placeholder" so that at least I used that time to move my body. Or I will switch my strength day in and run another day.
  • amykay9377
    amykay9377 Posts: 98 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    Having a goal in mind definitely helps. Lately I am all over the place with my goals and as a result my motivation is fading. It can help to write out your goals and set steps to accomplish them.

    I think this is my problem, too. I've not been running/training for races properly so I've seen my pace/time go up dramatically in the past year. So, I decided I should add some strength training to my training, but now I'm kind of solely focused on developing a bootie and reducing the "bingo wings." I'm schitzo about what I want, and I think both are suffering! But I don't want to give up on either goal...
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,498 Member
    I think I struggle more with self discipline than motivation, but they're interrelated. Motivation is what gets me to sign up for a race and create a training plan. Motivation is emotional, in the heart, and can be fleeting. Self discipline is what gets me out the door day after day, even when I really don't want to (like last night). Self discipline is intellectual, in my head, and gets me to do what I know I have to do to reach my goals, even if I don't feel like it. At least that's the way I see it.

    Lately I've been using my long-term, bucket list goal to get my butt out the door. My ultimate race is the Superior 100 trail race. I figure the year 2021 will be my first chance to run it. It's going to take a lot of work to train up to that. I'll be 54 years old in 2021 and who knows how many years after that I'd be able to get a shot at it. I'm only going to be successful if then if I get the necessary work in NOW. The desire to run that race gives me motivation to run and train in a general sense. Self discipline is what I need to get out there every training day and fill in every box on my training plan.

    I didn't expect it to be this way, but I've found that the motivation of that race, 3 years in the future, is giving me the self discipline to get out to to get the miles I need now.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    edited October 2018
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    I think I struggle more with self discipline than motivation, but they're interrelated. Motivation is what gets me to sign up for a race and create a training plan. Motivation is emotional, in the heart, and can be fleeting. Self discipline is what gets me out the door day after day, even when I really don't want to (like last night). Self discipline is intellectual, in my head, and gets me to do what I know I have to do to reach my goals, even if I don't feel like it. At least that's the way I see it.

    Lately I've been using my long-term, bucket list goal to get my butt out the door. My ultimate race is the Superior 100 trail race. I figure the year 2021 will be my first chance to run it. It's going to take a lot of work to train up to that. I'll be 54 years old in 2021 and who knows how many years after that I'd be able to get a shot at it. I'm only going to be successful if then if I get the necessary work in NOW. The desire to run that race gives me motivation to run and train in a general sense. Self discipline is what I need to get out there every training day and fill in every box on my training plan.

    I didn't expect it to be this way, but I've found that the motivation of that race, 3 years in the future, is giving me the self discipline to get out to to get the miles I need now.

    Good post. I feel like, at least at the moment, I am the opposite. I know that I have the self-discipline. Even though I am struggling with motivation at the moment, I know that I am going to get it done because I have taught myself to be pretty disciplined over the years. However, I feel like sometimes the burden of being disciplined can weigh pretty heavy if there is no reward to look forward to or no simple joy in doing the activity itself. I am looking for ways to trick myself into feeling motivated even though what is really keeping me going is just the self-discipline. Sometimes being disciplined can be exhausting, you know?

    ETA: Gosh, after re-reading my post, it's pretty clear to me that I am suffering from classic burn out. I will be happy to get this race behind me and spend the last six weeks of the year focusing on strength training and easy running for enjoyment. I am already registered to run Boston in the spring, so I think I might have to challenge myself with a pie-in-the-sky kind of goal after the first of the year. I mean, why not, right, if that's what it takes to stay motivated?
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    This past Saturday I ran a 26k. I ran my first marathon 2 weeks before that. I obviously didn’t have any performance goals for the 26k.

    I did have a number of other goals though. Since the race was so close to the marathon, it was still pretty tough (even running it quite easily comparatively), and the weather happened to be pretty horrible, it became an ideal chance to test out several mental techniques in a low-risk setting. If I struggled with something or the techniques weren’t planning out, I didn’t have any real performance goal at risk.

    So race ended up being fantastic - and I feel pretty good about having used these techniques in a race setting and feel they will positively contribute to my next “real” race.

    I know you’re quite an accomplished racer already so maybe this won’t be helpful-but it was a great way for me to look at a fun run that I was really doing primarily to spend time with a good friend and enjoy a beautiful course.
  • Lefty1290
    Lefty1290 Posts: 551 Member
    A good workout playlist. If I need it, I will put on a couple of songs to pump me up beforehand.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    My tip that's working for me right now is to get up and hit the gym before I wake up and realize what the *puppy* I'm doing....
  • eleanorhawkins
    eleanorhawkins Posts: 1,659 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    My tip that's working for me right now is to get up and hit the gym before I wake up and realize what the *puppy* I'm doing....

    ^This^
    I also (yes I know I shouldn't but I do!) sometimes use food to motivate myself. Like today, I planned a tasty day's food and pre-logged it all. Now I have to not choice but to move enough to get in the green before I go to bed tonight!
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited October 2018
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    I think I struggle more with self discipline than motivation, but they're interrelated. Motivation is what gets me to sign up for a race and create a training plan. Motivation is emotional, in the heart, and can be fleeting. Self discipline is what gets me out the door day after day, even when I really don't want to (like last night). Self discipline is intellectual, in my head, and gets me to do what I know I have to do to reach my goals, even if I don't feel like it. At least that's the way I see it.

    Lately I've been using my long-term, bucket list goal to get my butt out the door. My ultimate race is the Superior 100 trail race. I figure the year 2021 will be my first chance to run it. It's going to take a lot of work to train up to that. I'll be 54 years old in 2021 and who knows how many years after that I'd be able to get a shot at it. I'm only going to be successful if then if I get the necessary work in NOW. The desire to run that race gives me motivation to run and train in a general sense. Self discipline is what I need to get out there every training day and fill in every box on my training plan.

    I didn't expect it to be this way, but I've found that the motivation of that race, 3 years in the future, is giving me the self discipline to get out to to get the miles I need now.

    This describes me a lot. I look at longer term picture -- health but also longer term goals. I've had a three year old goal now of competing at the either the World Indoor Rowing competition at age 55 or the Crash-Bs (like the Boston Marathon of Indoor Rowing). I'm 54 this November and the race is 15/16 months out.

    On top of that, I've had (for the first time rowing) a nagging lower back issue. Not terrible but enough to keep me off the rower and force me to do other things, like an Assault bike. I'm just plugging away every day, doing things like FTP Training (training to hold the highest Watt Average sustainable for an hour, something bikers do). I've discovered that I need to hold, roughly, 200 Watts for an hour to race my goal time.

    Other things that help me is I'm part of an online rowing club (it's hard to find local indoor rowers as obsessed as I am) that has monthly competitions. Training for those fun online competitions motivates me as well.

    Even training intervals can have PBs that you go for on occasion when really feeling good. All these things help me to stay focused. Don't forget occasionally to have fun too. If there's been one thing about this back niggle that has helped me is to not take it so serious that I jeopardize my health. I've actually enjoyed the Assault Bike instead of the rower on occasion. If you would have told me I'd enjoy 60 minutes on an Assault bike a few years ago, I'd have laughed. That has helped me to better understand the importance of Cross Training to achieve my goals if necessary. Even Meb Keflezighi had to train on the ElliptiGo for a while when injured. Don't be afraid to mix it up a bit. Whether running or rowing or biking, if you're burned out, switch it up and have fun for a while.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    This past Saturday I ran a 26k. I ran my first marathon 2 weeks before that. I obviously didn’t have any performance goals for the 26k.

    I did have a number of other goals though. Since the race was so close to the marathon, it was still pretty tough (even running it quite easily comparatively), and the weather happened to be pretty horrible, it became an ideal chance to test out several mental techniques in a low-risk setting. If I struggled with something or the techniques weren’t planning out, I didn’t have any real performance goal at risk.

    So race ended up being fantastic - and I feel pretty good about having used these techniques in a race setting and feel they will positively contribute to my next “real” race.

    I know you’re quite an accomplished racer already so maybe this won’t be helpful-but it was a great way for me to look at a fun run that I was really doing primarily to spend time with a good friend and enjoy a beautiful course.

    That's a great idea. I may see how I do with varying my pace throughout the course of the race.

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