Find Your Why: What To Do When Your Motivation is Low

Where do you get your motivation from? What is that feeling of determination you experience when you are about to start something new? In the beginning of any new adventure, like starting a new training program, for example, sheer excitement is usually motivation in itself. Everything in the beginning is challenging but almost always immediately rewarding. Every day you get a little better and continue mastering movement patterns that usually lead to even more improvements. After a certain period of time, however, things can become stale. Perhaps, you have achieved your original goals, or maybe you have reached somewhat of a plateau. Or maybe the newness has just worn off? The question then becomes, where did all that motivation go? Why did it become so much more difficult to stick to your regime and continue with your fitness program?

When motivation starts wearing off, and have no doubt, it happens to absolutely everyone, even to the most passionate people you know, it is only natural for you to start doubting everything you do. If you have been on a training routine for a while, you may stop seeing results, you may get tired or even bored. Whatever it is that you are experiencing, one way that you can rekindle your passion is by asking yourself one simple question: why? Why did you start your training on the first place?

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What is your WHY? Is it to prove the doubters wrong? Is it to prove yourself right?

There are two types of motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation means that you motivation comes from within. You have the desire to perform a specific task, because its results are in accordance with your belief system or fulfill a desire and therefore you attach importance to it. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, means that your motivation comes from outside. Extrinsic motivation requires you to scroll through endless Instagram posts looking for that #MotivationMonday or wait for a gym partner to show up and yell at you to finish off one more set. Intrinsic motivation, on the opposite, makes you go to the gym to perfect yourself and your movements. You go to make yourself better. Intrinsic motivation is the true meaning of “do more of what makes you happy.”

Whenever you feel like you are losing your motivation, go ahead and ask yourself why you do what you do. What was the reason behind starting on this path initially?Answering the why can lead to a new mantra, clarity in goal setting, and an inner peace. In other words, newly found motivation!

Why did you start?

What was your reason to begin this journey? Did you want to lose a little bit of weight? Become a professional bodybuilder? Win a Pro Card? Whatever it was, get back to that initial goal. Have you achieved it? If yes, then set a new one! If no, let’s ask a couple more questions.

Who do you do this for?

Do you train for yourself? Your own health and body? Or did you make a promise to someone else and just trying to keep your word? Going back to the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which one of the two you have associated with your fitness goals?

When did you start to lose motivation?

Perhaps, you stopped seeing huge results, or simply got bored from doing the same thing day after day. Finding what it was that made you lose your motivation is essential to making sure you get it back.

Why should you continue?

This is the most important question that you need to ask yourself. Now that you remember what initially got you into the gym and what made you lose your interest, you need to find a new why that will help you rekindle your motivation. Can you setup a new goal? Find new benefits on your health that that you experienced as a result of your training?

Loss of motivation is not an uncommon thing. It affects all of us at some point of our journey. It is not a call to quit everything you have done so far and start on a completely new path either.  Sometimes all you need is to let your motivation come back naturally by asking yourself why you began your training on the first place.