Happy Week 3 of the new year! How are our goals going? Everyone still on track? Anybody hitting a slump and need some motivation?

So far, we’ve talked about setting the RIGHT goal – how to define your goal in terms of finding your why and then setting a SMART goal to get. it. done.

Last week, Zac talked about the TEAM you need – accountability and how that can focus your goal to help you achieve it. You need to be accountable to yourself, to a friend, to a group, and to a coach or mentor. All of these different areas of accountability will further focus your abilities to reach that goal!

Today. we’re going to talk about the motivation and discipline. How to STAY motivated when you feel like quitting or when your goal seems just too far away.

There are different reasons why we might lose our motivation:

Boredom
Feeling like you’re getting nowhere (Hint hint: is your goal too big?)
Stress
Comparison
Big life changes/setbacks
Truthfully, you need a combination of motivation and discipline to achieve your goal.

Motivation is what we need to inspire the change. To get started in the first place, there was some problem that you faced and decided you wanted to overcome. This was your “why” our your first spark into setting this goal!

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation comes from the outside.

DietBet or HealthyWage (earn real money by losing weight)
friends/family pressure to be healthy
Trophies or prizes for completing races/challenges
Getting compliments on the way we look from others
Intrinsic motivation comes from the inside:

Working out because it wakes us up in the morning
Choosing healthy meals to feel more alert/focused through the day
Making healthy choices to be the version of ourselves (for our family, but it’s personally rewarding)
Motivation may fluctuate, so we need discipline to keep going.

Discipline is rooted in our daily habits.

One study out of Duke University, in 2006, found that nearly half (45%) of our daily behaviors are automatic responses (aka habits). This is why it’s difficult to change our daily behaviors (especially diet and physical activity) once habits are in place. Once the habit is set, it’s automatic – the challenge is just setting the habit in the first place.
(https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/208/docs/Neal.Wood.Quinn.2006.pdf)

Many people quote the statistic that it takes 21 days to form a habit, but research has shown it takes an average of 66 days to create a new habit, so that it is automatic. However, it varies a lot based on a study by Phillippa Lally, our of the University College of London – some habits were established in 18 days, while for some people, it took up to 254 days (this may also vary based on how difficult the habit is!) (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674)

So how do we “stay motivated” through the lulls and when our goal seems so far away?

Enjoy the “journey” towards your goal. It’s supposed to take a long time.
Create new sub-goals if you need to.
Don’t expect perfection right away! Allow for errors/mishaps/days off, so when they happen, you don’t give up. (We’ll talk about planning for setbacks next week!)
Find enjoyment in this new habit. (If you don’t like it, you won’t keep doing it.)
Intrinsic motivation + Discipline = Reaching Goals!
Whatever your goal is, we want to help! Comment below, or contact us to work towards your goal!