Do You Ever Stop And Think Why Is It that Some People Are Able To Achieve Their Goals And Others Aren’t? Have You Ever Set Out To Achieve Something But Stopped Short Of The Goal? Or Perhaps You Don’t Even Have Enough Motivation To Take The First Step In The Direction Towards Your Goals?

You need to understand your “why”! Understanding your”why” will give you the spark or motivation to get things moving.

Motivations defined as:

“A reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.”

So I guess you could say that motivation is your “Why”. Why are you getting up at 5am to exercise? Why are you choosing a side of salad and not fries? Why are you making an effort to better yourself? The list goes on and on and we are faced with these questions every minute of every day. And not only relating to health and fitness, but with everything!

We need to have a motive to do anything in life. “I’m hungry” motivates me to get up and search for food. “I’m cold” is a motive to find warmth. “I’m unhappy with how I look and feel” motivates people to take action, start moving and make better lifestyle decisions.

But the longer and more daunting the journey, the harder it is to find motivation. And even if you do find it, holding on to it can be a whole new battle!

Now, I’m very passionate about helping people so being motivated to do what I do is easy. I wake up at 4am, work from 6am to 6pm, get back home between 7:30 and 8pm, then review my day and set goals for the next day. I usually get to bed around 9:30 – 10pm, then it’s back at it in 6 hours. I personally believe this is a normal day for most people in my position and if I want to be moving forward, this sort of hard work needs to be applied consistently.

Is it easy? No! Is it something that would be almost impossible if I didn’t have the motivation? Absolutely! And this is why finding your “why” is so important!

Why am I a Personal Trainer? Because I want to help people! I want to be someone who is making a positive change to as many lives as I can before my time is up. This motivates me to get out of bed and attack the day with everything I have.

Let’s talk about how to find motivation

First of all, you need to analyse how much you want something. Is it worth the time, effort and money that you’ll need to invest? Look at the big picture. Picture the end goal! The result of your investment!

What emotional response do you get from this? Is it a “That’d be nice” sort of response? Does it frighten you? Is it so powerful that you start working towards that goal this instant? Whatever it may be, true desire will create action!

If you know what you want, but lack the motivation to start, try talking to someone who has achieved your goal or someone who is also working towards the same goal. Attitude is contagious! Surround yourself with people who support your ambition, look for related groups or pages on social media, read books or articles, watch videos, the list is endless! But the bottom line is, motivation will come when the desire is strong. Without a desire or ambition, motivation just doesn’t exist. This is why at Miyagi, we have create a community of likeminded people that motivate each other everyday to keep pushing forward.

Now think to yourself, what is something that you want right now? What about something you want to achieve in 6 months? And thinking further… Where do you want to be in 5 – 10 years? The common denominator between all these goals is the initial motivation required to start. The difference is holding on to that motivation!

So let’s explore how we maintain our motivation

Once you have established your goal, make it clear! Picture boards, reminders set around your home, writing it down, screen savers and backgrounds related to your goals… Anything that will keep your goal at the forefront of your thoughts.

You need to be thinking about your goals as often as possible because this will dictate your actions on a daily basis. So having a clear picture painted, along with constant reminders should help with staying motivated. But we are humans, we adapt. Just having the same visual stimulus isn’t going to be enough for the majority of the population. So what can we add? Well there’s a tonne of different stimulating material we can add, but we want to ensure your motivation stays as strong as it was when you first made action. So we need to break your goal up into steps!

This is the golden rule, especially for enormous visions and frightening goals (which I 110% encourage).

Think of the letters in the alphabet. Many of us will begin a journey with the end goal in mind, but have no idea how we are going to map out the points between A and Z. There’s 24 more letters to get through! 24 smaller goals to accomplish! How the hell do you expect to get through the whole thing if you don’t know every letter? (Especially that tricky “ELLEMENOHPEE” part right in the middle). This is why we break the journey up into smaller goals.

For example (I’ll use fitness, obviously), the goal could be “I want to get into shape! I want to lose 10kgs of fat and get a six pack. I want to achieve this by the end of the year because I’m going on a cruise around the Pacific Islands and I don’t want to be embarrassed to sit by the pool with my shirt off!” (Remember to be specific).

Goal A – Find a Gym close to work or home and join.

Goal B – Find a program

Goal C – Figure out my diet

Goal D – Hire a personal trainer as I’m not sure how to apply these programs and I need the help 😉

Goal E – Drop my first 2 kgs of Fat

Goal F – Increase lean muscle mass by 1kg

etc.

You can see how all these small goals contribute to the end goal, but are much more achievable. Once you achieve something, it sets you up on a positive path. It generates momentum towards your big goal and it keeps your motivation up throughout your journey.

One last thing to consider is reassessment

As you progress towards your goal, things are inevitably going to change. This means that as you progress, you have to reassess what steps you’re going to take.

Back to fitness as my example…

Your initial goal was to lose 10kgs of fat. Let’s say you demolish that goal and get it done 3 months early. Well, you have 3 months until your cruise with no more steps in place. You’ve gone through the whole alphabet!

This is where a whole bunch of people fall off the rails and blow out. They’ve mentally checked out because there’s no more steps to follow. This can lead to a dramatic decrease in momentum.

On the contrary, you could be 3 months out and still have a fair few letters left in your alphabet. But without frequent assessment we can never be 100% certain on your progress and whether a change in steps is necessary.

My examples are related to Health and Fitness. But remember that everything I have mentioned relates to every single goal you have! Want to build a business? There’s a whole bunch of steps involved! And things will 100% need constant reassessing. Want to go on a world trip? Reassessing is 150% guaranteed along with a whole bunch of planning and all the steps involved. Want to start saving for a car? Put a planned amount of money aside each week! This is a reoccurring goal. Something goes wrong in life where you need to dip in to those savings? Oh look! A need to reassess. So you have a good idea about getting motivated and staying motivated, now you just have to apply these tips to your next venture.

Just remember these points:

• Surround yourself with positive people. Those who are on the same path will help you stay on track, attitude is contagious!

• Be visual and visualise. Obtain the feeling of accomplishment before you have accomplished it!

• Plan! Plan! Plan! Smaller more achievable goals will set you up on a path of positivity and boost your momentum!

• Frequent assessment. Reassessing your progress will determine the need to reassess your journey.

And most importantly, I haven’t mentioned this yet… Be happy! Find happiness in life and the success will come. Do things that you enjoy and always explore new experiences to live a fulfilling life!

Now… Take these tips, apply them to your goals and go get whatever you want in life, take that step forward today!

“The journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step”

– Chinese proverb

For further information about how Miyagi can help you build the body of your dreams visit www.miyagi.fitness/apply/ today and all eligible applicants will be contacted.

Author: Coach Mark Whittington

Email: mark@miyagi.fitness

Phone: 0466 405 839