Any of you that know me in real life know that it was just a matter of time before I took a gym bathroom selfie. I was particularly feeling it today at the gym, even though I took a couple days off because the ankle was feeling funky. I was itching to get back to the gym, showing my motivation is doing well.
That got me thinking, I’m taking a lot more pictures of myself now than when I first started. Maybe it’s because I’m more comfortable sharing myself with everyone in general. For example, at the beginning I was hesitant to share specific numbers regarding weight, strength, mph, etc.
Maybe I just hated looking at pictures of myself, maybe the denial was that strong back then. Maybe I just didn’t want to see things as they were.
Perhaps it was that mentality that led to my inability to visualize myself successful. I even think I’ve written in this blog before that I can’t visualize myself thin since I’ve always been large. As my motivation and confidence improve, that statement becomes increasingly false.
Visualizing Success
That “unable to visualize me thin” mentality began to change a little while ago back at the Chicago Bears 5k. I tried on the shirt the night before and was the first time I’ve ever said, “it’s tight, form fitting, but I look good in it!”
Thinking back to that moment, that spark of positivity was a bigger deal than I thought at the time.
Since then, I’ve begin to see my fat less as a part of my body, but fat that resides ON TOP OF my body. Daily, when looking in the mirror, I can actually see my transformation and it honestly makes me FEEL stronger.
Training also tremendously helps that visualization. It feels good to feel new muscles and see a tiny bit if definition peeking through what used to be a mushy blob.
Learning how to visualize the success gives me extra motivation to keep going and see just how far I can go!
The Elusive Motivation
When reading the endless articles and watching a ton of YouTube videos, motivation constantly comes up. This seems to be the sticking point for everyone (myself included!).
When you have a lot of weight to lose (as I do), it’s going to be a long and grueling journey. (Insert Oregon Trail pics here, haha.) Changing your lifestyle and maintaining for months, even years can wear you down mentally.
One tip I consistently see: You have you want it for yourself, you can’t do it because of outside pressure.
Simply put: You have to want to change your life, and you have to respect yourself enough to know that you deserve a better life!
Maria Landers recently put out a video that speaks my language. Not only do I relate to the struggles she admits to having, but she puts it in terms of video games!
She explains how she sees motivation in levels, in that you have to set goals for yourself baby steps at a time. If you’ve never run before, trying to place top 5 in the Chicago Marathon is too high of a goal for you. First try a 5k and work your way up.
As she put it, there’s no point in trying to beat the final boss when you don’t know what the controls are. Then you just get discouraged because someone beat the boss before you did.
If there’s something I’ve learned about myself during this journey, it’s that I have a “motivated by doing” personalities. I used to refer to it as an “all or nothing,” but this is more accurate as it applies to motivation and momentum.
Just getting into a groove of eating right and going to the gym and seeing the improvement motivates me to go more. The trick is to just get up and do it when I’m not feeling up to it that day.
Easier said than done, but knowing that’s how my mind works is incredibly helpful moving forward.
This also very much applies to all aspects of my life, not just health/fitness!
Adaptation and Trying New Things
I guess the whole point of me writing this is to say, never write off motivation techniques.
Everyone is different, so much like workout and nutrition routines, you have to find the motivation that works for you. That being said, don’t rule out any other forms of motivation either. As you grow, something that may not have worked for you in the past may in the future.
Something else I’m kind of intrigued by is self-affirmation. I’m somewhat skeptical about it, but I’m not going to rule it out for the future.
For an example of this, let me refer to the cinematic classic, Cool Runnings:
As silly as it may be, you have to admit, it worked for Junior! It’s actually an excellent example of “you get out of it what you put into it.” If you try to do a motivational tactic, but you don’t put your heart into it, then it likely won’t work. But if you put your passion into creating that motivation, then it will!
Now I’m just rambling, but that’s my 2 cents as of this moment, a little bit that I’ve learned about myself and my motivation.
Edit: Of course just after I post this, John Green releases a video that says pretty much the same thing, only much more concise!