Most people think of me as a fitness freak.

I used to think that of myself, but not anymore. Simply put, I am now always motivated to train for a particular reason or a specific goal. This post is about motivation. Not just in fitness but motivation in general, in everyday life. But let’s start with fitness first.

Why all of a sudden do you have the motivation to workout?

You’ve just seen some fitness model in a magazine and you want to be that model–have muscles or lose some (or all) of your fat. Women would like to lose weight and men would like to bulk up. Some have deadlines: holidays on the beach, weddings, photo shoots, summer getting close, or most of our clothes not fitting anymore. At the end of the day, you’ll realize that it will boil down to how your body currently looks and how you want it to look.  

You might have this belief that a holiday, wedding, or any other reason to lose weight will be good enough to start going hard at the gym, or hiring a personal trainer for the more dedicated ones. Well, you made these reasons YOUR MOTIVATION. That is a pretty cool goal to have. Except for a teeny tiny detail you didn’t think about, that is: Time working out just to lose weight, build muscle, change body composition is pretty miserable.

Why? Because building muscle takes years and losing weight takes months, if done in a sustainable way. Depending on how much body fat you have to lose it could take you up to a whole year. Same goes for bulking up. Depending on your body type and your current muscle mass, it could easily take a year to re-sculpt your body with weights.  

Now how do you stay motivated throughout a whole year to train in order to achieve your fitness goal?

You have to find another reason to workout or train. If you can produce an entirely different reason in your mind, that year of working out will feel like an adventure, it will not be a drag and you will have a sense of achievement. Think about it. If you can set a goal in fitness to change your body, then you can set other goals in life to change or improve anything in your life. If you can change your body you can change any situation in life.  

Goal setting is what gets you there–to your beach body, or a wedding body. Writing your goals is even more powerful–general to specific!

Start with a 12 month goal. That is your big picture you are heading towards. Examples include:

• I am now at my ideal bodyweight and I can wear all of my clothes.
• I have completely reshaped my body and I enjoy my weights routine.

Then set your 3 month goal. This will be a step to take to achieve your 12 month goal. Examples include:

• My body is responding well to training.
• I make wise food choices everyday that are always in line with my current fitness plan.

You will then set weekly goals to help you achieve your 3-month goals. Examples include:

• I’ll run for 1 hour in one week.
• I’ll have more protein, less carbo intake.

Lastly, set your daily goal(s) to get you through the week. Those will be your affirmations as you will be planting seeds in your mind and literally programming yourself for success.

• I love working out in the morning.
• It’s fun to try new things in the gym.
• I enjoy my nutritious and healthy food
• I love being me.

The truth is, it will make you feel a bit funny at first, but it is a process of programming your subconsious mind for success. The more you repeat to yourself what your goal is, the more you will be motivated to do absolutely everything needed to achieve that goal. You will feel like you are following your dreams and you will feel powerful.  

You become what you think about, whether you like it or not.

If you tell yourself you are an idiot enough times, you will eventually believe it. Then a time will come when you really do something silly and guess what you will say? I’m such an idiot. If you practice a positive and loving self talk you will disregard whatever silly thing you may have done and consider it as a good learning experience, and you won’t feel like an idiot at all. And your confidence levels will be sky high.

Anything that you want to achieve has to start in your mind, then manifest in real life. This is why we (motivated fitness freaks) work out every day. We have goals and we believe these goals make us a better version of us.  

For me personally, training releases thought and I get a great sense of freedom when I train. It is like meditation in motion. I am not in my mind when I train. I stay focused, listen to my music, and enjoy my body moving. I was born that way. You were too. We were all born to move. Not to be a couch potato.