How to Find Your Motivation Again

Let me start this post off by asking…Why are you going to the gym?  Before you do another rep, sweat another bead, make another ugly gym face, run another “lap” on the treadmill, make another excuse to not go, you need to answer that question honestly for yourself.  I’ll explain to you how to find out why you are really going..just keep reading.

In my blog post about time saving gym techniques, I spoke about finding what truly motivates you.  This is where the journey begins.  Before you get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of working out, you have to start here.

I said before that if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll go anywhere, but if you don’t why you’re trying to move in the first place, you won’t move much at all.

Total body transformation is a serious undertaking.  It can be done, but not without great effort.  I’m speaking the obvious, but sometimes we need to be reminded of what we are already concious of.  The body is a tricky thing.  It wants to operate as efficiently as possible, but it doesn’t like change.

In being resistant to this change, your body will give you tons of reasons why you shouldn’t be changing, but your mind has to be strong enough to perservere.  That’s really what this boils down to.  Are you mentally strong enough to get through?  Weak minded people don’t accomplish much in this life and they never get the body they want either.

So I’ll ask you again…why are you going to the gym?  Finding your motivating factor is the turning point in your journey.  It’s what’s going to keep you going to the gym when you are sore, exhausted, sleepy, faced with problems in your personal life, haven’t achieved a goal, and so on and so on.

Your Emotional Motivating Factor or EMF has to be something that resonates with you emotionally.  As a side note, EMF  also stands for Electromotive Force, another name for a battery which starts the current in an electrical circuit and gets it moving.

Your EMF can’t be something logical such as “I want to gain weight.”  Why do you want to gain weight?  There’s an emotional reason behind that.  It’s said that we make decisions emotionally and back them up with logic.

An example would be, that you want to be more appealing to the opposite sex.  This is an emotional reason.  You back that up with logic that says, “I’m too skinny, so I need to gain weight.  The best way to do that is to hit the gym.”  You see where I’m going with this?

Once you have that emotional reason in place, you can be concious of why you are going.  This will stir up the emotions you want to feel once you have achieved that goal, which is a powerful motivating factor and will keep you in the gym.

Examples of Emotional Reasons are:

• More appealing to the opposite sex – Desire for more sex (men) / Desire for security (women)
• To be more appealing to your husband/wife
• Just plain Vanity – you like looking at yourself
• To be able to play with the kids more
• To be better at the sport you play
• To win a fitness competition
• To improve self-esteem/self-image

All of these are good emotions that release endorphins into the system when stimulated.  You get the picture.

Examples of Logical Reaons are:

• To gain/lose weight
• To bench press X amount
• To run X amount of miles
• To get a six pack
• To get larger arms
• For better health
• Doctor’s orders

All of these may be good reasons to go initially, but none of them will keep you in the gym very long.  At most, you may stay for a weeks or couple of months.  That’s why the gym subscriptions drop off as the year goes on.  People make logical reasons for why they are going to the gym, but aren’t really aware of their emotional reason…their true EMF.

I often remind myself and others that to keep going to the gym, you have to love the pleasure enough to endure the pain.  It’s also said that we make decisions in our lives to either avoid pain, or gain pleasure.  Often, when people stop going to the gym, their avoidance of pain outweighs their desire to gain pleasure.

Your EMF is the battery that fires up your circuit and gets your current flowing to keep you in the gym.  It’s directly tied to the emotional reason you have for going and gives you pleasure.  The logical reasons all stem from emotional reasons if you think about it.

I’ve always been a pretty steady gym goer, thought I’ve gone through peaks and valleys with my attendance.  Since I started this blog, I’ve had to do some soul searching to find my own EMF’s and they are: to be more appealing to the opposite sex, money, and vanity.  I’ll just be honest with you.

I get a rush whenever a female comments on my muscles, gives me that look, or runs her hand across my chest.  I get a rush when I look into the mirror and I see improvements where my hard work has paid off.  I remember the skinny guy I used to be, so I can appreciate the journey.  I get a rush when someone asks for advice or looks up to me as a fitness mentor and want to pay me for my services.

These are the things that motivate me.  One alone is pretty strong, but combine them, and you can clearly see why I hit the gym 3 or 4 times a week.  My mind is tied to the pleasure of the outcome, not the pain of the journey.

Now you may ask, “Mitch, how do I find my EMF?”

Most likely, you have some logical reason for going to the gym.  It’s probably in the above mentioned list as a matter of fact.  Now look at your logical reason.  It may be to gain weight for example.  To find your EMF, ask yourself “If I gain weight, what will that allow me to do or have?”  The following answer should be your EMF or list of EMF’s.

For instance my logical reason for going to the gym is to gain weight.  So I ask myself “If I gain weight, what will that allow me to do or have?”  My answer: It would allow me to look sexier and attract hotter women.  It would be a testament to my mental strength and personal example that I can accomplish anything.  It would allow me more opportunities to write, give value, and gain customers in my blog and in the gym.

Motivation is a big topic so I’ll be writing more about tricks and tips to keep you in the gym, but this is the meat and potatoes to gym motivation.  Once you have your EMF in place, it’s time to set some goals.  So I’ll ask you one more time…Why are you going to the gym?

Don’t forget to check out my Articles page for more knowledge.  Until next time, Happy Lifting!

Mitchell

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