#MotivationMonday Won’t Get You Results

What if I told you #MotivationMonday was dead? Throw motivation out the door. It’s not what gets us results or helps us hit goals.

Now, that’s a bit extreme, and we’ll talk about why. But, we’ll also talk about building consistency, habits and cues to stick to a plan when your motivation seems to have disappeared right as that glass of wine is calling your name instead of your workout.

Motivation. What it is. What it isn’t.

First, let’s breakdown motivation – what is it and what’s its role?

Motivation /ˌmōdəˈvāSH(ə)n/

noun

The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.

The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

When it comes to goals and changing behaviors, motivation plays an important role in determining your why – why you’re interested in making changes. Why you’re interested in working with a coach. Why your goal is your goal – what that means to you.

Your motivation also comes into play to get started in the first place, or to revisit goals and push forward towards them. It tells you how much you’re willing to put into a program.

Motivation IS NOT what helps you hit your goals. That is consistency.

Motivation IS NOT what gets you to the gym, gets you out the door, gets you on the bike, makes your nutrition decisions, plans your meals – that comes from building skills, practices and habits that drive consistency.

The Tools for Results

When we set goals, we need to assess our ability to hit those goals by looking at three elements: Willingness, Ability, and Readiness.

• Willing – This is where motivation comes in – why is this important to you and is that reason enough to motivate you to start the process?

• Able – Do you have the skills and practices that are needed to get there?

• Ready – Are you ready and confident to take action and make those changes?

Building ability with skill practice

When you think about your ability to achieve a goal – and the skills that you need – you will need to build those skills through practice and actions, eventually building habits.

Say one of the goals requires you to increase protein. If this isn’t a practice that you’re familiar with, all the motivation in the world won’t help you go about your day to make the smart changes to get there. It takes learning, planning and repetition.

Those changes, planning them, are the actions that you can take to build the skills to make nutrition choices that support more protein. Eventually, you may not need to plan ahead – your practice will become second nature – but to get there, you need a plan to build those skills, and to stick to that plan. The Stick-To-It Plan. 

Readiness – Building the “stick-to-It” plan

A “stick-to-it” plan will help you when you lose motivation, because you will, and that is expected. By creating a “stick-to-it” plan, you are no longer relying on your motivation and emotions to be in the right place every time you “should” do something. Instead, the plan helps build the habit that will help get over those times of low motivation.

Elements of the “stick-to-it” plan

Actions: Identify 1 or 2 mini actions that can get you started – get changed, go to the workout space, just do the warmup, commit to 5 minutes, plan 1 meal, prep just the veggies. Those mini actions are often all we need to get started. Try habit stacking – where you put a new habit on top of an existing habit, to build that habit muscle.

Repetition: The more you practice your routine, the more natural it will become. Consistency, not perfection, is the key here.

Here are some example scenarios:

You want to increase water – you always make coffee – drink your water while you make your coffee. Before you know it, that first glass of water becomes a habit. Then add another glass somewhere else.

You always have lunch or beer with friends on Saturday afternoon. Add your run to the meet up – creating a Saturday afternoon running habit (with a little reward at the end).

You waste 25 of your 45 minutes for a morning workout scrolling the news, social media, and emails. Put your water bottle or sneakers in front of your phone – so when you reach for your phone, your workout trigger is right in front of you. Or find a time that you have more energy and plan your workout then.

Build your own skills and stick-to-it plan

Think about some of your upcoming goals or habits you want to build. Break down why you’re interested – what’s the motivation behind it. Break down those goals into the skills you have to build to get there. Then think about the plan that will make you able to achieve those. You should feel confident in your plan!

Want more tools to create the stick-to-it plan? Check out the FREE RESOURCES to download a goals to action worksheet.