Training while motivated and beyond.

Motivation is derived from the word 'motive', which denotes a person's needs, desires, wants, or urges and serves as the reason we initiate, continue, or terminate behaviours. It’s thought that a motivated state will compete against other mental states with the strongest state determining the behaviour and therefore we can be motivated to engage in a behaviour but still procrastinate or refrain due to another mental state persevering.

While in a motivated state, tasks feel easier to accomplish including engaging in physical exercise. This is often observed during the new year when there is a communal urge to improve behaviours often centred around health and fitness. Many enter the year in a motivated state, determined to improve their wellbeing, however as their motivated state gives way to another these behaviours become more challenging to engage in and this often leads to a termination of these efforts.

Motivation is strongly linked to the desire to accomplish goal-based behaviours that may be either intrinsically driven where the activity is desired because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, or extrinsically driven where the goal is an external reward distinct from the activity itself. It is well established that intrinsic motivation often yields better outcomes than extrinsic so when goal setting, we should aim to steer our desires towards ones that better align with this principle. An example of this would be to lose body fat in order to improve our health and wellbeing rather than seeking to achieve the same target but with the reason being to please others and receive external compensation.

In some instances, starting an exercise regime while in the peak of a motivated state can lead to an over estimation of an individual’s abilities and an overzealous approach when setting goals and targets. A few issues can arise from this including the possibility to over-do it during workouts (running too fast, far, or too frequently for example) or setting goals that are unrealistic and unachievable, both scenarios are likely to accelerate the shift into another mental state which will involve becoming less inclined to pursue the behaviour.

Embarking on a training and/or nutritional plan while in a motivated state will be met with little resistance or internal push back but as we have come to know, optimizing health and wellbeing long term takes long term commitments that can’t solely rely on motivation to be peaking. Ultimately motivation will ebb and flow, but behaviours can remain consistent if approached and executed properly. This can include:

·       Being disciplined – Discipline has been described as the art of doing something you may not want to do but doing it like you love it and can be a great way to nurture the beginning of habits.

·       Forging habits – Habit formation is the process by which a behaviour, through regular repetition, becomes automatic or habitual. Often performed subconsciously and requiring little drive to initiate, forming habits around behaviours that improve our physical and mental wellbeing is a powerful way to ensure we stay consistent. 

·       Setting goals that encompass short term processes and actions which ultimately provide the foundation to longer term goals. An example of this would be rather than setting a single goal to lose one stone, you aim to complete two exercise sessions per week while also incrementally increasing your daily step count by 1000 each week until you reach a set target, ultimately by executing these actions and assessing progress through regular weigh ins you can closely track your progress and ensure adherence and consistency are maintained. Your goal in this scenario may remain the same but now there is an adaptable framework of how this may be achieved.

·       Achieving said goals and targets – Progress and achievement can be a compelling way to ensure a period of motivation lasts longer. Setting these short term, tangible targets and ticking them off will appease the reward pathways of the brain, releasing dopamine and encouraging repeated behaviour. 

In conclusion, motivation and being in a motivated mental state can be a huge benefit when the aim is to improve your wellbeing however it is important to recognise that this state can ebb and flow. Riding the wave of motivation when present will aid in the pursuit of consistency, which is key when engaging in or adjusting behaviours and especially important in the realm of health and wellbeing, but when this state ultimately gives way to another, it’s important to have further methods and principles to rely upon to ensure this consistency remains.