I’m Just Not Motivated
Hey guys! It’s Jessica. As you know, I’ve been traveling quite a bit. Just in the last two weeks, I’ve been to Indianapolis and San Diego. I get asked A LOT how do I stay motivated or how do I stay on track, ESPECIALLY with traveling, but honestly, you can apply this even if you’re just not motivated and struggling getting your own results in your day to day routine.
A lot of times, I think, that we are just under the impression that successful people have tons of internal motivation or
discipline or
self-control.
What I’ve found in MY case and in MANY cases is it comes more down to your DAILY HABIT. So I want you to think about things in your life that you do that you don’t even think about…they’re SUCH habits in your life that you don’t have to make yourself, or coerce yourself or talk yourself into doing them.
For example, for me, that would be things like
brushing my teeth,
putting on deodorant
you know,
how many time have you even driven to work and not even had to think about it..you just do it unconsciously. Or what about when you pull into a parking lot and lock your car then you walk a few feet and you lock it again then you walk a few more feet and lock it again because you aren’t even recalling the activity because it’s such a habit you have in your life. When you, all of the sudden can make your workout THAT type of activity then it’s not required to have self-control or discipline.
Give Your New Habits a Piggy Back Ride
What I do is I like to piggy back my habit onto a habit I already have in place. For example, at home, I know that every single day I eat an english muffin for breakfast. So, I know that I’m going to do my workout within one hour of eating my english muffin. (For me, it has to digest and I just work better having food before my workout but waiting long enough for it to digest.)
I have that habit in place attached to a habit I already had. That made it easy to become a regular occurrence in my life.
Now since I’ve been traveling more, I’ve realized, I have to come up with a travel habit. Because what was happening was since I was out of my daily routine, I wasn’t getting my work in like I’m supposed to. So now I know. As soon as I get to my destination when I’m traveling, first thing I do…
I scope out the gym and find a place where I can do my workout…whether it’s in my hotel room or wherever, then I know the FIRST thing I do when I wake up is work out.
I don’t eat my english muffin first because a lot of times I won’t have time, so I’ll eat afterwards, but it’s ALL about creating that habit.
If INSTEAD, I rely on my discipline or my self-control…GUESS WHAT? I’m human. I talk myself out of it. I’m just not motivated. I come up with a million reasons NOT to do my workout and start to build a case against my workout and it just goes against getting the results I want to achieve.
Same thing goes for my nutrition. I don’t have foods that aren’t good for me in my house.
If I had
brownies and
pizza and
cookies
staring at me, I’m going to eat brownies and pizza and cookies. So, I don’t leave it to my self-control. I have my habits in place where I don’t bring it into the house, but I do splurge on occasion when I’m eating out. Just the other night, I was out with some friends and they ordered some crazy, amazing appetizers. The first thing they said was,
“You’re not going to eat these, ARE YOU??”
YES I’M GOING TO EAT THOSE because I don’t have the self-control that I wish I did. So, I didn’t eat A LOT of them but I DEFINITELY ate them. Ha!
The key is, in my case, I have to have my habits in place. Hopefully that helped you.
Piggy back it onto a habit you already have until it’s created and it’s like BREATHING.
You just do it because it’s part of your day.
You don’t think twice about it.
You don’t have conversations in your head.
And you don’t allow yourself to be talked out of it.
Because I brush my teeth and I wear deodorant so I better do my workout.
P.S. Hopefully that was helpful. Make sure you subscribe to my channel. If you want help getting started on your health and fitness journey, it’s what I do. I match people up with at home fitness programs that will get you crazy, amazing results even when you’re not motivated. I’m living proof. Shoot me a message at jessica@jessicabowsernelson.com. See you guys later!
Digging Deeper,
Jessica Bowser Nelson
