Let’s talk about motivation. Or mo-ti-vay-shun. It’s a common word tossed around in the fitness spectrum. It seems like someone is always telling us to find it, or channel it, or strive for more of it. But honestly, we’d like to take a stick and beat that word like it’s a pinata.
Until it’s too beaten to hold shape and then we can take it down and forget it.
So you may be wondering, if the word motivation is often tied to fitness, and you guys are the Fitness Team, what do you guys have against it?
And the answer is a short list of things, honestly. First off, motivation (not the word, but the emotion) is fleeting. It’s something you feel at moments but it can vaporize quickly. So quickly, in fact, sometimes it vanishes before you ever have a chance to use it. And what the heck good does motivation do if you don’t have a chance to use it when it strikes??
Secondly, if we had to write out motivation like an algebra problem, it would look exacty like this: motivation=inconsistency. And just like any algebra problem, the answer is not negotiable. It is a hard line answer that works the same every single time you try to solve it. As does our version. If you are going to rely on motivation to get you to a workout, be it joining a class, getting in some time on the treadmill, or heck even getting to the gym, it’s going to fail you a LARGE portion of the time. So where does that leave you? It leaves you inconsistent. Because it won’t fail you every time. No, sometimes motivation is like the popular mean girl in school. She talks to you and tells you you’re pretty and makes you feel like you should try new things. You will tap into the newfound sense of motivation for a few days and feel like you are winning at life. And then….. reality sets in. Mean, popular girl (motivation) tells you that those leggings actually don’t look very flattering on you and suddenly you’re second guessing being seen in them and the end result is you taking off the leggings, stuffing them in the bottom of your pants pile and curling up with a book. To heck with the gym. You’re sticking with reading. Books aren’t mean and make you feel bad about yourself in leggings. And mean, popular girl (we’re still calling her “motivation”) is left smirking knowing she stays on top because once again she has managed to pull the rug out from under another person before they can form a habit. Or channel a better emotion.
Cue evil laugh by “motivation.” (Now do you see why we want to hit her like a pinata??)
We can’t beat the word out of Websters. We can’t wish it away on our birthday candles either. So we’re stuck navigating around it. We give it a wide berth - staying as far away from it as possible. Avoiding its use like the list of words your mother forbid you to use when you were younger.
We don’t wait for it to strike because we, as instructors, can’t afford the roller coaster ride that she drives. We have to show up for class each day/week. We can’t rely on something as flitting as motivation to carry us to the gym and through the door. That’s a job better left for those hardy emotions. Discipline. Consistency. Good ol’ fashioned Drive.
Drive allows us to put our cars in reverse and run right over motivation on our way to the facility. Leaving it squished in our driveway. She might be hollering, “Come back, I was going to be helpful today!” but we can’t take that chance. We need to rely on something that’s helpful every day. And motivation - you ain’t it.