I want to explore motivation in the next few posts. It’s crucial for establishing new fitness habits and keeping them going. We’ll start with defining it. I find each day easy to get motivated, so I’ll share my personal tips at the end.
First let’s look at the definition.
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What Is motivation, really?
Psychology Today defines motivation as “the desire to act in service of a goal. It’s the crucial element in setting and attaining our objectives.” Sounds noble.
Here’s a definition I like even better, from organizational psychology researcher Ruth Kanfer: motivation is the psychological forces that determine the direction, effort, and persistence in the face of obstacles (various sources including Wiley).
Notice the second definition says it’s not just about wanting something or starting something. It’s about the direction you’re heading, how much effort you’re putting in, and whether you keep going when things get hard. For fitness, that’s everything.
A diabetic moment for insight:
Blood sugar control (even for non-diabetics) benefits from regular exercise.
Diabetics feel sluggish when anything is out of balance. Blood glucose (a.k.a. blood sugar) is one thing we measure and can anticipate. We learn fast and take better actions, or face the consequences.
Now here’s what I’ve realized about motivation, for whatever reason: it isn’t really about feeling pumped up to do things. It’s about setting up your days so that motivation doesn’t have to be regenerated from scratch every single time you need to do something.
I’d like to imagine this for yourself, so let’s paint a picture of what it looks like.
The motivation routine, as I see it
Here’s how my typical day works: I go to bed knowing exactly what I want to wake up for – my current goal. When I get up, I remember my goal for the day, feel how important it is for a moment, and get on with the first task. Then I repeat throughout the day.
As each hour or task comes along, I know what comes now, what comes next, and what should be achieved by the end of the day, for that goal. And I purposely notice that today’s goal feeds directly into tomorrow’s goal.
I also have an ongoing vision of where I want to be in my life, which breaks down into my year’s goal, month goal, this-week goal, and today’s goal.
If you're interested in this approach, see the book The One Thing for an uncomplicated way to set yourself up with a goal - the easiest way I've ever seen in my 50 years, LOL.
By the time I’m getting ready for bed, there’s no surprise. My brain already knows it needs a good night’s sleep because tomorrow I’m working on something that matters to my larger purpose.
Experiencing life in this way feels exciting. What I personally did in recent hours and days led up to this exciting day today. On a daily basis, you may notice that today’s activities are different from yesterday’s. Today is more advanced toward my current goal.
It’s a recurring loop: bedtime flows into morning, morning flows into action, action flows back into bedtime. Each part connects to the next.
Most people experience their days as disconnected moments. They wake up and have to decide if they’re going to work out. Mid-afternoon, they wonder if they’ll make it to the gym. Evening rolls around and they’re negotiating with themselves all over again. That’s exhausting. No wonder motivation feels hard.
Motivation can feel easy, without much fuss.
Pre-decisions are better than winging it
Please don’t count on willpower to force better habits into your day. Willpower isn’t the right tool for adopting daily fitness habits.
When you decide “I should probably exercise sometime this week,” you’re burning willpower every single day as you debate whether today is the day. But when you decide “I exercise Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7am,” you’ve made the decision once. Now you just show up.
Set our big vision carefully – it will drive your passion and ability to love your goals so much that you can’t wait to go to bed, and can’t wait to bounce out of bed to do your workout.
Pre-decisions don’t require motivation. They require follow-through that is way easier.
Here’s an example: if you care about your teeth, you don’t debate with yourself every day about brushing them. You already did the hard work in childhood of getting a cavity and vowing to have healthy teeth in future. The future is in your hands!
The Driven Passion at Every Step
The other piece that makes this work: first you need to firmly know why you’re passionate about your vision or goal. Only then, when each day arrives, you’ll know what to set for a goal.
When you can feel and trust in your vision of being a healthy person into your senior years (your vision), you can see how a weekly goal like 150 total minutes of exercise will help. If you’ve felt better when you exercised that much compared to weeks that you didn’t, your body notices. Pay attention to such realizations so that skipping healthy behaviours just doesn’t enter your mind.
My blogging goal example
I make sure I have a heck of a goal so that life doesn't get me off track. FYI, my one-year goal is to produce my blog posts every week for a year and see if my audience starts to grow.
Writing, fitness, and marketing are big passions for me. I have other goals and passions too, but this one is my biggest, strongest combo.
Blogging provides me joy and satisfaction, and provides a strong identity (writer, fitness geek, tech geek). I posted late only twice in over 8 months of blogging so far. That's waaay better than blogging efforts in my past. Way better! I've started over 20 blogs and websites in the past 20 years, and this one is surviving.
How to train your motivation
If motivation feels like this thing you have to constantly find, try the tips below:
- Tonight, before bed, decide on one thing you’ll do tomorrow and why it matters.
- Example: “I’m doing a 20-minute walk in the morning because I’m building stamina for that hike next month, and tomorrow is part of that.”
- Remove “should” from your vocabulary
When you wake up, that decision is already made. You’re just following through.
Then, as you move through your day, notice the connection between what you’re doing and what comes next. You’re not just exercising—you’re setting up tomorrow to be easier (e.g. 130 minutes remains for the week’s goal after you run 20 minutes today). You’re not just going to bed—you’re preparing for the goal you already know is waiting when you wake up.
Motivation isn’t something you need to find. It finds you. It’s just the natural momentum of a day that actually connects to you.
Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes.
Credits: windsurfer image by Kanenori from Pixabay.
What’s your approach to staying motivated? Do you plan your days ahead, or do you figure it out as you go? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear what works for you.