DISCIPLINE OVER MOTIVATION

It’s not always easy to stick to something new, especially if the “something new” is pretty different to your current routine (I could’ve easily said normal routine, but I chose the word current because we are aiming for a new normal, but doing it in a way that will happen over time). Studies have shown on average It takes around 66 days to make a habit automatic, so this is not an overnight thing. Easiest way create a habit is don’t make it so hard to stick to it. Don’t go from zero to 100!!

What does that mean?
Well, if you’re not a morning person don’t make it your goal to workout in the morning 5 days a week. Find a time that suits you to mitigate the excuses. Also, any movement is better than no movement. Don’t always aim for 1 hour workouts, a quick express workout will still get the job done. Go for a walk with a friend while having your coffee to catch up instead of at a café or bar, integrate your goal into your lifestyle so it doesn’t seem like this big juggling act you have to perform.

Grab a friend to do your workouts with, easy to say no to yourself but harder when you have a friend. It also helps to go along the journey with friends, like-minded people help you stay strong.

Let’s get real, I don’t always look forward to working out, some mornings are just bloody hard to get up to do a workout. I am human and life gets in the way, but I don’t wait for the good days where I am amped and motivated. I don’t rely on motivation to help me, motivation is an emotion, it’s fickle and unreliable. You can’t rely on it to show up when you need it.

I rely on things I can control, such as discipline. Being disciplined to stick to the plan regardless of how motivated I feel, being disciplined to making better eating choices, being disciplined to turn up for ME. I make that time non-negotiable, an appointment for myself that I don’t cancel. If I can’t make the investment in myself, no one else will. I also know I am a better human when I’ve done my workout, so I do it for my friends and family around me.

With discipline, you will form a habit, habit means consistency. Consistency will help you attain the outcome you’re striving towards. Fall in love with the process, focus on elements of the work out that will help you get through it. By breaking it down and looking at it in segments it minimises how daunting the entire workout may seem. Small milestones will lead to big wins.

I always feel better after a workout, even when I’m not looking forward to it. I don’t think about the end of the workout and how long the workout is going to be. I just focus on getting the workout started, because I know that once I get the blood flowing, music going, the endorphins are flowing and I’m present and thinking about the number of reps I have to go or the target I’m aiming for. To be honest it’s the workouts I haven’t looked forward to, the one where motivation was being a world class fugitive and was nowhere to be seen that I’ve enjoyed the most. Why because completing that workout released the reward chemical into the system: Dopamine, by completing that workout and celebrating the win of getting up and getting it done.

So be disciplined to book that YOU time in, be disciplined to get up and do the workout. Celebrate any movement in your day vs. being hard on yourself for not getting a full workout in. We have express options on HoP to ensure the workouts will get your heart rate going in only 10 minutes.

I can’t wait to see you move and create habits that will benefit you through all facets of your life.

Let’s get it Fam!