Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise. Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction. Do you feel motivated now? Maybe.

Staying Motivated is Easy

You see, these quotes amongst many others are nice. I’m sure you’ve seen them online before spoken by very successful individuals in this world. But here’s the thing. How long do you feel motivated for? Do you feel this motivated 6 months down the line? It’s very likely that you don’t and the more determining factor of your motivation in the long run is certainly not this quote or motivational video you watched. It’s great in the short-term but diminishes over time and probably in a couple of weeks afterwards.

So what should you do to maintain a good level of motivation? I say good because it’s impossible to have insane motivation all the time. This is unrealistic and no one has this level of motivation.

Let’s start with the different forms of motivation that you have available to you. Intrinsic motivation can be defined as being motivated by something to do with yourself personally. For example, you may want to increase muscle mass to look and feel better or alternatively because you want to be better at a certain sport such as rugby. These are both internal explanations for why you workout because they personally benefit you as a person and give you satisfaction.

The second form of motivation is extrinsic motivation which can be defined as being motivated by something not to do with yourself. For example, you may be motivated to lose weight because you’re being offered rewards in the form of money, trophies or similar things that are considered important to you.

So do you use both forms of motivation? Is one better than the other? How do you make the most of this knowledge to train well and achieve the physique you want?

Put simply, intrinsic motivation always triumphs and is more effective in the long run than extrinsic motivation. This is because intrinsic motivation is more likely to lead to persistent behaviour towards a goal when external motivators such as money or other rewards are not present so relying on this as a source of motivation is not optimal in the long run.

Having both is great, but I want you to focus on internal sources of motivation as this is the key to long-term motivation.Why are you training or wanting to train? Think about things to do with yourself that can motivate you to achieve your goals. Do you want a certain look, or do you like the feeling of exhilaration people experience from exercise also known as the ‘runner’s high’?

If you tend to need extrinsic motivation to get you going, you can develop intrinsic motivation by linking internal rewards with external motivators. This is perfect because many people like to workout with friends. So, go to the gym with your friends (who are initially your external motivators) and be encouraging of one another. I know that sounds cheesy, but just spot for one another or help each other with technique as your friends can be the initial source of external motivation. If for example weight loss is your goal and you are beginning to see the physical changes, focus on the internal feeling of awesomeness that comes with it and give yourself recognition for the effort you’ve put in. This should then start the process of internally being motivated.

This is a very clever way of developing internal motivation because once you have seen the initial changes and focus on the internal feelings you get from your hard work you’re limit is only you. Cheesy enough, right? Haha, now go and set yourself some goals and smash them.