THE MYTH OF MOTIVATION (AND WHAT YOU NEED INSTEAD)

"i'm just a little tired of seeing people on MFP asking for others to "motivate" them. what they need is discipline."

You ruined it!

Great original post but this is just brainless trolling!

Too mean, eh? :laugh:

Fantastic post, and so true once your minds in the right place and the decision is made the body can only follow.

bump for motivation :-)

Great post! And I totally agree! It's funny that this same idea rings true for life in general. We work hard at our jobs for that paycheck or or that big promotion. We work hard at raising our children so we have kids who are polite and respectful. We work hard at our relationships so we are loving and committed........we don't ask for help with any of this stuff. We do it because it needs to be done. Apply this same logic to exercise and nutrition.....just do it because it needs to be done.

Love it!

Excellent excellent post, thank you. i remember when my dad (a zillion years ago) stopped smoking, he was a hard core smoker. When asked was it hard, he said no, he said he just made up his mind and made the decision, and that was IT. So yes, it is definitely a decision

"i'm just a little tired of seeing people on MFP asking for others to "motivate" them. what they need is discipline."

You ruined it!

Great original post but this is just brainless trolling!

Hardly trolling. It's good advice. People hold onto this idea of "motivation" like it's the only thing that's going to push them through it. But guess what? Motivation flags. We have a bad day at work or a kid gets sick or we just don't feel like going through the rah-rah motions of YAY WEIGHT LOSS IS SO AWESOME and that very day, people start thinking there's something wrong with them. They begin to hate themselves and run perilously close to the cliff of giving up entirely.

All because they've confused motivation with success. But no one can be 100 % motivated 100% of the time about any one single thing. That's not something to be stressed about, that's NORMAL. But I see so many people here beating themselves up and freaking out about it.

Decisions is what gets us through the times when we don't have motivation. That's last waaaay longer than motivation.

I think the biggest thing is to NOT decide. Don't let there be a decision involved. It shouldn't be "will I work out tonight?" but rather, I'm going home & working out. PERIOD. Just like you don't wake up every morning and say "should I go to work today?" You just do it. Make it something YOU JUST DO!

Absolutely love this post, thanks!

I'm getting frustrated seeing all the gimmicks being pushed on girls (and guys too!) to help them get started. Everyone is so convinced that getting started is the hard part. The insurmountable wall of DAY ONE or WEEK ONE.

It breaks my heart. There aren't a million steps here. You dont need to follow couch to 5K through to the end before you can learn to run on your own or call yourself a runner. You dont need to master working out in your living room alone before you are allowed to join a gym. You don't need to take a group weights class before you can start liftin heavy. You don't need to hire a trainer before you can start learning how to plot out and organize your own workouts.

You don't have to have 4000 specific starting steps to get to the point where you have actually started. This is all just procrastination. I learned this the hard way as well.

There is one step to starting... START. Own your DAY ONE like something no one can take away from you.

THEN - THEN you build your momentum. Then you get rolling. Once you let go of that all-important starting point (cause it doesn't have that much hold on your progress, it's just a Bon Voyage to the old complacent you) then you can start building speed and living your new lifestyle. Really sinking your teeth in deep with something. Get going so strong that it's almost impossible for anyone or anything to stop you, only slow you down a little.

Every aspect of fitness can be dug into deep. From low impact water cardio to Xtreme Adventures in the Serengeti. Don't play around with everything just a little bit cause you're a commitment phobe, that's just delaying your progress. Decide something is worth mastering (or at least mastering for yourself, maybe not Olympics). When you can be consistent in something for several months, then you're in deep enough to deserve results.

I see all these people talking about building up the momentum to finally start and I just stare at the screen.

DO SOMETHING! STICK WITH IT! EVOLVE!!

/rant