Sometimes in life, we don’t feel like working out.
Maybe we’re hungover, maybe we’re lazy, but maybe there’s a deeper, more consistent problem that prevents us from ever breaking that barrier and starting a training program.
Here’s an important point, for whenever you’re seeking to start a new thing.
The pain you get from starting the thing must be less than the pleasure you will receive from completing it.
You might be saying, “Yeah, so? Obviously, John.”
The problem is sometimes we don’t define AT ALL why we want to start working out.
Common answers include:
“Because I now I should be.”
“Because everyone else is.”
“Because I want to look better.”
Some of these goals are fine if you can manage to reconcile them with some type of internal motivator, but simply laying them out like that leaves them as externally motivated goals.
Extrinsic motivators are always less powerful than intrinsic motivators. Of course they are. Extrinsic means outside of you, and who gives a shit about anyone else but themselves, really? (Only half-kidding)
When we refocus and really define why the hell we want to train in the first place, from a position of being truthful to oneself, we tend to become much more motivated. We become more connected to the goal, causing the pleasure of achieving it to be greater than the pain of starting it; something that generally isn’t the case with extrinsic motivators.
Let’s try to turn those extrinsic motivators into intrinsic ones.
“Because I should be.”
Why? ”Because I don’t want to be left behind.”
Why? “Because I want to be the best I can be.”
Why? “Because that’s how I give my life meaning. I compete against myself.”
When you’re working out to give you’re life meaning, it connects to something deeper inside of your being that just, on an cognitive level, saying, “I should be working out.”
When you miss a workout, you’re giving your life less meaning. You’re not just letting down some random societal maxim.
Here’s another.
“Because I want to look better.”
Why?
“Because I want to attract women.”
Why?
“Because I don’t want to find a wife.”
Why?
“Because I want don’t want to go through life alone.”
Why?
“Because I want to create a legacy that will last generations”
Try missing a workout when your unborn children depend on it.
These aren’t the only paths to transform the above stated goals into intrinsic motivators, but the idea is the same: turn it into something that means a lot to you specifically.
Keep asking yourself why until the question no longer makes sense. Then you’ll have figured out why, or if, you really want to workout. And by then, you’ll probably already be doing a set of 20 push-ups.
Your reason doesn’t have to be some moral or social ideal either. As long as it matters to you, just lift.
Until next time!
P.S. This article may help as well.
