How do you keep motivated every day?

I set myself challenges, I also have my workouts pre-planned for the week ahead by the weekend. For example, this year I want to complete a sprint triathlon and also do a tough mudder run. They are motivation enough to keep going. As is the thought of the jiggly bits I need to get rid of so my tri and wetsuit don't look like they are holding a blubbery whale ; )

Motivation for me comes from the results I'm getting. After working out harder over the past few weeks and months I went to the gym last night and really found I could do more, lift more, run faster, push the rowing machine more, feels great!

With that in mind I've decided to put up my latest 'body' shot and this can be my before pick. Can't wait to compare it in a few months when I've built myself up more and toned my body.

i think of the end goal ... great motivation here

LOVE your sticker ideas. I'm a teacher and have hundreds of the things! ...

I make a graph .. and plot it every day. The stickers could be work with that!

YES ... I know it will go up and down ... I accept that ... but I love statistics and I love when it does go down.

Sometimes it goes up almost 1kg and stays there for 2 days then drops back to normal.

I know people say only do it once a week .. but what if it was one of those days when my weight went up ... it would just depress me so much and send me to the icecream palour LOL

Oh .. and I'm all for mini rewards ... I lost some weight before MFP and rewarded myself every 5 kg .. It started simple ... First 5kg was a new nailpolish and got a little bigger each time. Eg 20kg was an upgrade to first class on one leg of a domestic flight.

Most planned rewards though are for things that make my changing body feel/look great. Eg manicures, massages, hair treatment, perfume ... Once I crossed out my "New Necklace" for "2 scoops of icecream" .. only cause I love the stuff so much and wanted to justify it as a reward (as opposed to something regular)

I was just having this conversation with a real life friend.

Motivation is totally overrated. If I waited to be motivated everyday, I would never do anything. You just have to do it anyway. Make it a part of your schedule- get home, lace up running shoes, run (or whatever the equivalent is for your workouts)- don't even let yourself think about the option to do it or not. Just do it.

Thanks for posting this as it has resonated with me! Pushed me to exercise and to know I really don't have any other option. Just have to practise perseverance.

You don't. (Try to stay motivated every day, I mean.) There are plenty of days when I just don't feel like it.

There are lots of good tricks because motivation is important. Having said that, motivation is but a mere push. Commitment is the true key.

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” ~Unknown

I admit... I have different levels of commitment. When life has a speed bump, I have certain minimum standards and then when I can breathe again (and for the majority of the time), I ramp it back up to all the mini goals I push towards. In the end, we should be striving towards progress at all times. Where we start is just a starting point. The goal is to keep growing. What is hard now will not be your challenge later. But if you wait to be always motivated, you won't be. Instead, rely on commitment to grow. Identify your goals and tell yourself you WILL do them. Don't accept anything less. Then move on and make more goals. It's a process. Embrace it. Commit to change.

I think the stickers are a really cute reminder of what you have done each day. I may do that on my calendar. I tend to set goals also as I really start dropping on a regular basis. I am thinking of getting a tattoo when I loose 100 lbs.

I stay motivated by logging onto this site and that's the honest truth. I've hit somewhat of a plateau and have bn there for a while now BUT when I log onto this site and read the sucess stories as well as the not so sucess stories, it inspires me bc even those that are not having such gr8t sucess rt now are encouraged by others who have "been there"

*sigh* Yes, if you make it a lifestyle change you *shouldn't* need motivation, however, some people need motivation in the beginning, before discipline sets in. Others don't and are disciplined from the get-go. I was disciplined with my calories, but needed motivation for my workouts. I don't use these methods anymore, because I don't feel the need for them anymore but they were definitely helpful when I first started working out again.


I got a large clear mason jar (from a bar...that my alcoholic drink came in lol) and labeled it...unoriginally..."workout jar" lol. Every time I did a workout, I'd put a dollar in the jar. Seeing the money add up really helped me to get and stay motivated. Looking at a pathetic, empty jar made me determined to fill it (and thinking about what I'd spend the money on helped, too )

I also did something similar to you with the stickers. I went to the dollar store and got a pack of 180 motivational stickers. I printed out a calendar and every day I worked out, I put a sticker corresponding with how I did. "Good job" was for an average workout, "perfect", "whale of a job", and "great job" were for awesome ones, "best job yet" was for ones where I upped the amount of weights I was lifted or the intensity I ran during my HIIT cardio, and "you did it!" was for the days that I REALLY didn't feel like working out, but I did anyway. Slowly the "good job" and especially the "you did it!" stickers made fewer appearances and the "perfect," "whale of a job," and "great job" ones appeared more, as well as the "best job yet" ones. It may sound silly, but I think the stickers motivated me more than the jar. I loved being able to come home (I work out in the evenings), look at the calendar, and think about which sticker I was going to add to my calendar. Saving the calendars and actually seeing the past ones being so full was also motivation. Hope this helps!

PS--I've also seen people with 2 clear mason jars, one labeled "pounds lost" and one "pounds to go". They use marbles to represent either a pound, half pound, quarter pound, etc. based upon how much they want to lose. Every time they lose weight, they take the adequate amount of marbles out of the "pounds to go" jar and put them in the "pounds lost" jar. So if someone has 20lbs to lose, they'd have the marbles represent a quarter pound so the jars are more filled, and if someone has 100lbs to lose the marbles would represent 1, 2, or 5lbs.

In closing, I'd say get motivated in the beginning, but be and stay committed from beginning to...well, no end :drinker:

Living as good role model for my 12 yr old daughter