(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free work on and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. You will not always be motivated, plain and simple. Motivation is fairly fleeting, but we need to capitalize on it when we can, and there are things we can do to ultimately create motivation. And I want you to hear me out with this because I think it’s really key that we understand that we have some control over how motivated we feel.

(00:52):
Now, motivation relates back to the pain of staying stuck. We are motivated when we have a lot of pain, so to speak, in where we’re at right now. We don’t like how our clothes fit. We don’t like how we can perform in the gym. We don’t like our health markers when we get some sort of bad news or have that sort of our face pushed in, something we don’t like, we are motivated to want to make a change, usually after the holidays and some weight gain from the cookies, those different things in January, we’re like, yes, let’s kickstart things. So that’s what motivation is. The pain of staying stuck is pushing us forward. And when we start to make changes, a lot of times because we have more motivation, we are willing to make more sacrifices, endure more pain of change, we’re willing to do more habits.

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We go on that 30 day kickstart that’s really intensive, doing six days a week of training, cutting out all the foods we love and we’re motivated to do it. The pain of staying stuck outweighs the pain of change. However, after 30 days, after six weeks, depending on the results we’ve seen to keep the motivation going, depending on how much habit overload we are suffering, at some point the pain of change starts to outweigh the pain of staying stuck. Maybe we’ve even sort of hit our goals. And so the motivation fades and we don’t think about what the next steps are to really maintain our results, but that motivation fades because we are no longer in as much pain, and often the pain of the changes we’re making starts to outweigh it. So you think, oh, well, I’m not motivated. And the habits that you built maybe that have become more second nature you’ll keep doing and that can help you sustain the results for a little bit.

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But a lot of times, because we went so all in and we did all these restrictive things, we tried to create schedules that weren’t even realistic, that pain of the change completely sabotages us. And we end up repeating that yo-yo dieting cycle thinking, well, I don’t have the willpower, I don’t have the discipline, I can’t do this. All the other excuses, not enough time schedule, genetics, all these things start popping up. And so we think, okay, well I just have to wait until I’m motivated again to move forward. But we can control the motivation we feel. And part of this isn’t that we necessarily can create more pain of staying stuck. At least we don’t necessarily want to, don’t go gain more weight on the scale. We don’t want to injure ourselves so that we’re more motivated to train in the way we should, right?

(03:09):
We don’t want to do those things, but what we can control to help create motivation is the pain of change. We can control how we are making habit changes and the environment that we’re creating and all of this can impact how we move forward. So if you’re really motivated, as tempting as it is to make all the changes all at once, embrace more sacrifices. If you don’t have a game plan to shift back towards sustainable or if you don’t assess that you’ve always done this pattern and this is always what sabotages you and makes you run out of willpower and self-control, you are going to end up in this repeating the same pattern and losing motivation and feeling like you don’t have discipline and willpower again. So this time and with the shift in seasons, whether or not it’s going in the holiday season, whether or not it’s going fall, summer, whatever else it is, you always have an opportunity to reassess what you need right now because results are built off of meeting ourselves where we are at right now.

(04:02):
And so if you’re motivated, great, you’re going to be willing to embrace a few more sacrifices. However, if you’re not as motivated, you can still make changes. You just have to own that. The pain of staying stuck is only going to outweigh a certain amount, and this is where you control what you can control. So you need to adjust the pain of change. And what I mean by this is the fact that we always have that all or nothing attitude. Doing all the different changes at once, going to the six days a week of working out, going to intensive macro breakdowns of making more sacrifices, cutting out foods we love. But instead of doing this, we have to say, Hey, what habit seems almost so silly, simple. What workout schedule seems so manageable that I can do no matter what? And when we start with this, we reduce the pain of change.

(04:48):
I call it setting the minimum, doing the minimum because when we do this, we’re meeting ourselves where we’re at. If we’re right now not even tracking the food we’re eating, maybe we just start by tracking our food. No, this is not a change that’s going to result in overnight weight loss. It might lead to some because we become more conscious, but it’s one habit change that we can build off of. Maybe we just start by adding in more vegetables instead of cutting out the dessert. We really like if we’re not training at all, instead of going to six days a week, maybe we start with five minutes a day or three times a week. But the key is meeting ourself more where we’re at because this will allow that change to not give as much pushback. I think it’s like Newton’s third law, right? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

(05:29):
And so if we are thinking about this in terms of the pain of change, when we’re motivated, we are more motivated, so we’re going to do more, but in doing more, we’re going to get more pushback against it. And so we have to see if we can handle the pushback with the motivation we have. And when we don’t have motivation, if we can create less pain of change, we’re going to get less pushback against that. And in this less pushback, we’re going to be more able to maintain the routines and habits. And through maintaining these routines and habits, we’re going to feel better about what we’re doing. And this is where we can create motivation through the success mindset. Think about your ideal schedule, your six days a week. If you only do three days of the six days that you plan, you feel unsuccessful with that and you are way more likely to then fall off that routine, not keep doing those things.

(06:11):
However, if you set it at doing three days and you did those three days, all of a sudden it’s a completely different mindset. You’re successful with what you set out to do. And even though you did three days, both times a design probably for the time you have, so the three days design for three days is going to be better. But B, you also now feel successful. Like you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish versus feeling like you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, that you didn’t hit that ideal. And that success mindset that we build with hitting what we were supposed to hit helps us want to do more and continue forward faster. So we have to realize that that’s what creates the motivation, meeting ourselves where we’re at, doing what we can and seeing that build from that because we feel successful.

(06:51):
The more you do, the more you do. And this can be in a positive direction or in a negative. Again, if we do three days when we plan six, all of a sudden we’re feeling like we don’t have the willpower, we can’t do what we should, and we start doing more of less and we snowball the other way. So with creating motivation, a lot of it is owning how motivated am I actually? How much pain am I in to make a change? How can I capitalize on this to start making changes but also not do too much so that the pain of change doesn’t start to outweigh it? And when my motivation does start to fade, that initial pain I felt, how can I then adjust the pain of the changes to make sure that I keep moving forward? And it’s going to those minimums, it’s saying, Hey, what schedule is realistic for me right now that I know I can for sure do?

(07:33):
Maybe it’s not my ideal, but what do I know? I can for sure do. Hey, I have been tracking intensive macro breakdowns, but I’m feeling really demotivated and I don’t want to do anything. Okay, well what’s something I can still maintain? The more we can back off and take it back to those basics, because in making changes we add on, I’ll call it a lot of fluff, a lot of fancy shiny decoration that yes is beneficial, yes, is those 1% improvements. But at the same time, if we strip some of that away and take away some of those things that are taking our attention and go back to those basics, we can keep moving forward. We can maintain our results and in that, see our motivation build again. So sometimes you have to strip things back to those basics and do the minimum you have to go say, Hey, I’m only going to track protein and calories and not worry about where my carbs and fat fall.

(08:15):
Hey, I’m going to do three days a week over six. Hey, I’m going to do 30 minutes over an hour. You have to strip back some of those things in order to keep moving forward because this is really how discipline is built because in making these changes, we’re unlearning old habits, habits that are almost, or often even unconscious as we’re sort of bringing them to light, we’re making them conscious, so we have this control over them, and then we’re consciously trying to put in new habits over them. That’s a lot of willpower, a lot of self-control, a lot of attention focus that we are using, which is why we can see that motivation fade with doing all these changes at once. But in this process you have to say, Hey, what’s a small habit? I can focus on unlearning this? How can I replace that behavior?

(08:57):
And this is where changing your environment can be so helpful to creating that motivation because our environment influences the actions that we take when we think about it. What do you do when you get home? You put your purse down, you put your backpack down, you put whatever down, and you might go and do whatever habits you normally do, which might be going to the cabinet. If you struggle to go to the gym, you might look over at the tv, you might get caught up looking at the mail, you might do all these other things. How could you change your environment to help you go to the gym and not just go to the cabinet and snack and read your mail and get caught up doing other things, and all of a sudden it’s late at night and you’re like, okay, now I’m not going to work out.

(09:33):
You could change your environment by putting out your gym clothes, the first thing that you see, or by even bringing them in your car so you don’t go home in the first place. That’s changing your environment. So you instantly go to the gym instead of going home. But if you can’t, you put ’em out at home. But the point is, you’re changing the environment. You’re changing that routine or pattern so that you can trigger new actions, and that can help make it easier to bring those unconscious patterns to light while implementing a new learning process of new habits that you want to do. But it takes less willpower, less control. The more we try and rely on discipline. We say, I’m in this habit of going to the gym and then we don’t put out our clothes for the first time. The more you’re going to see those habits slide because you don’t have that visual reminder.

(10:12):
So as silly as it can seem, make changes to your environment that will help trigger those new habits because that will make you have to rely on discipline, on motivation a little bit less because it’s something that will hold you accountable. That’s a visual, even as silly as it might seem putting on the cabinet, Hey, I have these habits. These are my macros. This is the day that I planned out already in my tracker to eat. That’s that reminder and that little extra accountability so that you aren’t so much saying, well, I could do it or I couldn’t do it. It’s adding to that motivation. It’s creating that motivation. So again, going back to sort of summarize, when we’re trying to create that motivation, it’s recognizing that the pain of staying stuck has to outweigh the pain of change. But we can’t change staying stuck, so we have to change the pain of change.

(10:56):
That means sometimes going to the minimum, it means embracing changing our environment and it means creating that success mindset because the more we do, the more we do. And all of this comes back to you guys always assessing where we’re at right now because things don’t stay constant. Our priorities shift, our schedule shifts, and we need to own this. So at points we need to step back and say, Hey, why am I feeling demotivated? What’s going on in my life right now that has shifted my priorities or made me feel burnt out with some of the habits? And again, this is where we can strip away some of those things. It’s where we can change our schedule. It’s where we can change our environment. Or even in doing that assessment, you might just say, Hey, I need a new focus. I need a new goal to work towards.

(11:38):
And that can help you refine the motivation. But as much as we can’t necessarily just magically make motivation appear, we can create it by addressing what we need right now and by changing the habits to create that success mindset. Because again, the more we do, the more we do. So I really hope that helped. And if you’re finding that you are a senior motivation fade as you’re even going into the holidays, and I bring this up to going into a holiday season or even a summer where I mean honestly, it can be anytime of year, but where we might have some vacations coming up or holiday parties we’re going to go to, we start to worry about doing the thing we should be doing on the day that we should actually be enjoying. And we have to remember that if every day is legendary, no day is legendary, but we can make more legendary days by embracing on other days, we can make sacrifices.

(12:31):
So whether it’s the fall, whether or not it’s the spring before or summer vacations, do it now. Make the changes. Now use the motivation of making those days legendary and not depriving yourself on the days that you really care about and want to enjoy. Use that motivation to motivate you to do something. Now we can create motivation even by reminding ourselves of what we really want out of things. And having that long-term focus isn’t always easy. But I also think recognizing that we sabotage ourselves by worrying about dieting on vacation, worrying about dieting on the holidays, over focusing on the 300 some odd other days of the year that we can make changes. So sometimes saying, Hey, I’m going to do this. Now, to have those other days be legendary can be really helpful and it can help us embrace sacrifices because that could be even the change in your environment that you need.

(13:14):
Having that calendar with the days that you truly care about that you don’t want to have to worry about the habits that you’re doing. You don’t want to have to worry about a missed workout on focusing then on those days that you want to make legendary over depriving on those days, you can use all the other days to your advantage and even sometimes create that motivation to move forward now over waiting. So off of that, I did want to see if there were any questions, comments, or concerns in the group. And if you are watching the replay, do not hesitate to comment afterwards. I will go back through and try and help out with anything that I can or link to any other helpful tips and tricks. It doesn’t look like there is anything. But guys, I really hope this did help because I know it can be very frustrating when it feels like we’re motivated, we make all these changes and then we can’t sustain them, but we have to recognize that motivation is fleeting and we can only create it through adjusting our habits to keep moving forward.

(14:03):
And as tempting as it is to do that all or nothing, go all in, make all these sacrifices. That’s also what keeps us stuck. It might give us fast results and it make us really good at dieting down, but it doesn’t make us good at maintaining the things that we need. So we need to really recognize how we’re making habit changes because if you go in saying, well, I’m cutting out dessert, and then all you’re thinking about is how much you can’t wait to have dessert again, you are basically telling yourself, Hey, I’m making all these changes, but ultimately I’m not going to maintain them because I want to add that back in later. So recognize when you’re going all in to try and see fast results and try it out exercise and out diet time, which is also what’s kept you stuck and depleted your motivation even faster to make smaller changes that can really build, so that you can see those results be maintained.

(14:46):
And yes, it really frees you up to accept the normal human dips and live life because you need to. And I think so often we don’t recognize how much in trying not to live life, we ultimately sabotage our own consistency. Because if you were to really look at your year and how many days you do all the habits you’re fighting against, it’s going to be a lot more the more you resist because you’re going to feel deprived. You’re going to think you can’t have something. And I can tell you a lot of times we’re like, oh, I can’t diet. I have to diet on Thanksgiving. I have to eat. Well, I can’t, whatever. And then ultimately we don’t. And yet we have this feeling that we were deprived on this day when we weren’t really deprived, and then we feel guilty for that day and then we do more things off track, and then it takes us longer to get back on track because we felt so deprived with it when we didn’t even deprive in the first place.

(15:30):
So we’ve created this whole negative association and mindset when we didn’t even necessarily do anything that was moving us forward in the first place. And so the more we embrace that, we can have those legendary days and dial in at everything around it, the more we really strike that balance, the less we try and strive for someone else’s ideal, someone else’s version of Eat Clean. We find our own balance, and that really is what the habit build is all about and moves us forward towards our goals in a way that we can maintain and maintaining our results is really what we want. We don’t want to look great for a day. We don’t feel great for a day. We want to feel great for years. And that’s about meeting ourselves where we’re at and realizing that we can create the success mindset that leads to us feeling more motivated overall and even when we’re not motivated, relying on the discipline that we’ve actually built through changes in our environment, doing the minimum, assessing what we need right now. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.