2013 Motivation

31 days ago a new year began. You probably set yourself a goal, like "I want to loose 3 stone in 2013" or "I want to gain 2kg of lean muscle in 3 months". How are you getting on with that? If your still working toward it, well done. Keep going, as progression is just a matter of constant effort. Given up already? Was it just a typical January health kick? That's your relationship with the gym done for another year? I know why you failed. Lack of motivation. Simple.

So what is motivation? Quite simply, it's the general desire someone has to do something. Motivation will strongly determine how quickly you achieve your goals in life (not just the gym). How motivated you are comes from 2 things - values and beliefs. Motivation is at its strongest when these two factors come together. Let me explain, a value is developed over time and is strongly influenced by the people you live and hang around with. An example could be 'a fat body is not a good look'. A belief is a belief you must have in yourself to be able to achieve your goal. If I'm honest, if you don't have either of these factors you may as well not even bother attempting the goal you set out, because you probably will FAIL.

Let me use smoking as an example. You might decide you want to quit smoking. You may believe in yourself that you can do it, but you might live by the value that smoking is cool and great to socialise around. How long do you think before you give in and spark up? It works both ways as well. You might hate smoking, realise its slowly killing you and emptying out your wallet every week. But if you don't believe in yourself, your not going to last!

Remember: good values + self belief = real motivation.

Motivation is a fire and without fuel it will die. How do I stay motivated week after week, year after year? As far as my fitness and body building goals go, I constantly have a vision in my head of what I want to become and how I'm going to get there. I regularly change my programme to keep things fresh. I might even train toward some other fitness goals such as speed and strength. I train at different gyms, meeting and training with other people. I entertain myself by reading and learning new things in fitness magazines and books. Most importantly, I believe in myself and I enjoy everything I do.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and have taken some useful info away from it about how you can stay motivated and keep the fire alive toward achieving your fitness, career 
and personal goals this year.