5 Motivation Strategies
Last week a lot of people sent me messages wanting some strategies to help with motivation. If you are a person who likes tough love, then read this: Yell At Me, Please
I also wrote my personal story That Time I Gained Back 34 Pounds about having to face down my own emotional eating while taking my mom to chemo and training for the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival bodybuilding competition. It tells how fitness helped get me through the toughest year of my life and I hope it encourages you.
If you are time-pressed and want strategies you can act on today, then this post is for you.
5 Motivation Strategies
Habits
You can’t rely on motivation to get you to cross the finish line. Instead, rely on habits. Set your alarm clock, block off time in your planner, do whatever you need to do to get your workout done whether you’re in the mood or not. It takes 21 days to establish a new habit. The sooner you start the sooner you get that good habit ingrained in your mind.
Get Psyched!
You know what gets me out of bed at 4 a.m. to sweat on a treadmill? The thought of winning another bikini competition. It gets me fired up and ready to go, even when it’s raining, or I’m tired or it’s Tuesday. What makes you excited? Is it buying a new outfit for a vacation? Getting to a healthy enough weight so you can get off your high blood pressure medication? Training for your first Spartan Run? Whatever your goal, get psyched about it and let that pump you up and get you out of bed.
Checklist
Once you get to the gym, have a checklist with you. Have a print out of the exercises you plan to do and then check them off as you go. That way you can say, “Three exercises done, only two more to go.” There is something motivating about crossing off one more item from your to-do list, right?
Visualize 
When you are standing backstage at a bodybuilding competition you will see tables set up with all the trophies to be awarded that evening. When I went to my last competition in Costa Rica I looked at those trophies and visualized myself onstage holding the biggest one, smiling and laughing as my family clapped in the audience. Then I made it happen. You can do this too. Whatever you want: a new house, a trip around the world, a fantastic new job, picture yourself there. What does that house look like? What foods are you smelling as you travel to exotic locations? What does your bank account say after your first check at your new job as the boss of your own company? Make a vision board or at the very least, close your eyes and see yourself there.
Tell Yourself It’s Already Done
Whether trying to get through the first difficult set of a workout or finally finishing your taxes, give yourself a pep talk with a twist: congratulate yourself for finishing before you even start. It sounds like this, “I’m so proud of myself for getting to the gym today even though I was tired. I feel so much better now that it’s done. It feels so great to prove to myself that I’ve got self discipline. I rock!” Then get your butt out of bed and actually do it.
Hope that helps!
Lisa 🙂
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Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two….and Original Cast Member of AMERICAN GRIT, starring John Cena, on FOX!!!
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