Everyone needs motivation, especially when it comes to working out and staying fit. I’m not talking about a personal trainer — although that’s nice if you can afford it — but something more internal. Real motivation is an inner drive that helps us get things done.
I have to tell you that I’m really not sure what my motivator is.
Shaun T says during one of the Insanity videos that he works out because “I wanna look good”. And he does look good. But that’s not what motivates me. Well, not primarily, anyway. Looking good is a nice by-product, no doubt, but I am not trying to sculpt my body.
The thing that keeps me trying to stay fit is my health. I really enjoy being healthy.
Yes, I know there is a difference between fitness and health. Jim Fixx is a famous example of that. Fixx had a big hand in starting the fitness revolution in the United States. He was a runner, a very fit guy, but … he dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 52. Atherosclerosis. What are you gonna do about that? Diseases can get you, no matter how much you work out.
That’s where diet comes into play, and, because my motivator is health, I also am pretty strict about my diet.
Some people have events as motivators. Wedding days. Reunions. A marathon.
Those are all good motivators, but how many of us know a bride who lost a shitton of weight to look great on her wedding day, and then — uh oh — she is hardly recognizable 6 months later?
Some people’s motivator is a past event, such as a heart attack. That’ll wake you up, right?
But, you know, the further removed we get from that brush with death, the less real it seems. We start feeling good, and we reason that it’s okay to have just one bowl of ice cream. And it is! It really is okay to have one bowl of ice cream! But that one bowl often provides a slippery slope, and the next thing you know, we are back to our old habits.
The key to any motivator is longevity — it has to last a lifetime.
Besides “health”, another key motivator for me — and it’s certainly linked to health — is “no medications”.
I like that one, because health is so variable and difficult to measure, but I surely know when my doctor wants me to take a pill. (The other day a specialist apologized to me that there is no pill for tinnitus. No apology necessary, doc.)
“No meds” is what really what keeps me going. In fact, yeah, I think that “no meds” is probably my primary motivator, now that I think about it. I have an internal drive to stay off meds.
When I was on 2 blood pressure and 1 cholesterol medication back in 2007, my need to take those things with me and make sure I got them every day while on a cruise vacation made me go, “Hmmmmmm….” Then, when I looked at the vacation photos and saw how fat I really was, that put me over the edge and got me started down the path to fitness.
The fatness got me going, but the internal desire to stay off meds keeps me going. Right? If that were not true, once I was no longer fat, I’d lose my motivation, and … let the yo-yo’ing begin.
So, then, what is your motivator? Is it a short-term fix or is your motivator in it for the long haul? If you can find a motivator that lasts a lifetime, that’s the one that will keep you and your fitness goals on track.