Fitness Enhancement Personal Trainer Neil Geddes, who is based in Aspley Brisbane has come up with some great tips about motivation. Neil is a highly experienced Trainer, dad of three kids and our Fitness Enhancement Aspley Franchisee. He also covers other suburbs in Brisbane such as Albany Creek and Bridgeman Downs.
Motivation
My alarm goes off at 3:30AM. I fly out of bed to shut it off before it can wake anyone else in the house. Quickly, I chuck on a set of ‘cams’ (army uniform), a pair of boots and a beanie. I step outside and the cold hits me like a thousand knives. My once black car is white with frost and the windscreen is frozen over. Not that matters… I wont be driving to work this morning. I spend 10 minutes feebly attempting to warm up in the blistering cold for the walk that lay ahead. My lungs actually hurt as I suck the cold air in. Enough of this. Time to crack on. I strap on my webbing (10kg in total) and throw my pack on (28kg). I also grab my “rifle”… a 6kg length of pipe with handles welded on in the right spots. I now have 3 hours to walk 20km to work with a total of 44kg strapped to my body.
And I’m excited to be doing it…
What would possess someone to actually enjoy the suffering, pain and fatigue from putting themselves through this? Not just once, but day in and day out? Enter the world of intrinsic VS extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is when you do something because you enjoy it. Because you find it interesting. Because you want to do it. In terms of exercise and training, very few people start with intrinsic motivation. It is something that is developed over a period of time. There are natural athletes and sports people who since childhood have always loved sport and fitness, but they are generally the exception rather than rule. For most people, the first time they are made to do a hard work out… they hate it. They hate the sweat. They hate the fatigue. They hate the burning muscles… So why are they training in the first place?
Enter extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is essentially one of two things. Chasing a reward or avoiding a consequence. So for exercise, some people may start because they want to lose weight (chasing a reward) or because their family doctor has told them to start training, or they will die of a heart attack (avoiding consequence).
Now here’s the thing… I guarantee you that if you stick with a training program, something magical will happen. There will come a time when you realize that you have achieved your goals… but you don’t want to stop training. You don’t want to miss a session. You don’t want your PT to call in sick (we know you pray for it some mornings!). Suddenly, you will be looking forward to your sessions, rather than fearing them.
Now this process doesn’t happen overnight by any stretch of the imagination. Generally, you will find it will happen in synchronicity with the results you are getting. It’s a bit like this:
You start training. You hate training. You stick with training.
You take your measurements after a few weeks of hating every session… You’ve lost 5cm! You get excited. You’re next workout you start a bit excited.
It’s working, so you
train a little harder. Your workouts seem a bit easier this week. A few weeks later you’ve lost another 5cm. Your friends start noticing… You feel great! Before you know it, you’re looking great. More importantly, you feel great and training is now a part of your daily routine. You want to train. You want to continue feeling and looking great. Guess what? You are now intrinsically motivated to train!
Team, once you hit this point, there is no turning back and there is no looking back. Master the art of intrinsic motivation and master the art of your life. Because it will carry across to everything that you do.