When you sign up to my site, I send you an email – as well as a host of free ebooks and awesome programs – where I ask you two questions:
1. What’s your biggest goal?
2. “What’s your biggest obstacle?”
Knowing the answers to those 2 questions help me understand what most people struggle with, and where most want to end up. The answer to the latter is not surprisingly very often the same: a lack of consistent motivation, or consistency altogether.
This is a problem that we need to, and can remedy.
Take the following steps to give your training some consistency, and finally get the results you want and deserve.
1. Take scheduled breaks. Long scheduled breaks.
Sometimes the best way to get motivated is to avoid burning out. When we burn out, we too often try and push through this lackadaisical phase, rather than avoiding it altogether.
Of course, being lazy isn’t the alternative. If you’re lazy, good luck trying to find the inspiration to get up and head to the gym. That TV will keep you in your seat for days if you let it.
Follow a program word-for-word for 3-6 weeks, then take a complete week off. Go for a couple runs, stay active, but don’t go to the gym. For one, it’s going to do your body a ton of good with regards to recovery, but it’s also going to give your mind a much needed break from training.
Now a lot of you will read this and not follow this advice because we always think that more is better. That we have to keep breaking through our barriers if we’re going to reach our goals. But a scheduled week off – whether you feel like it or not – will help you stay consistent in the long term, and even help you get better results in the short term.
Remember that burning out is one part physical fatigue, and one part mental fatigue. A vacation from everything is always the best way to recharge your batteries both physically and mentally.
2. Shun consistency.
Whatever you’re doing in the gym shouldn’t be boring. It should be exciting. You should be doing exercises that push you, but also learning new things and pushing your body in ways.
If I did the same workout, with the same exercises week after week, for one, I’d plateau and my gains would stop. But two, I’d get bored and my workouts would suffer as a result.
There are some great programs out there that offer a great deal of variation. But even with them, add your own little tweaks. Don’t be afraid to substitute one exercise for another. It’s always good to mix things up a bit.
3. Set a goal. Break that goal down into smaller goals.
Set a goal that excites you. Walk into a boxing gym with the goal of having an amateur fight within the year. Seriously. How exciting and motivating would that be?
Then break that goal into smaller goals that are focused on the process, not the result. Set smaller goals like following the program you just bought for 2 weeks, word for word, without slipping up. Take a week off. Then set a longer goal.
Have your big, harry, audacious goal, then break it down into things that’ll actually help you get there.
4. Why do you want to get in legendary shape?
Seriously. People think they know why, but they really don’t. If you have a true understanding as to why you want to embark on this journey, task, or whatever you want to call it, you’d do it. And you’d succeed at it.
Great people know why. Average people know how. And everyone know’s what. Think about the real reason. You have one. It’s not a matter of making up a great reason, it’s about digging down, deep down, and finding that reason that will help you stick with through the tough times as well as push harder when things get easy.
5. Man up.
I could go through a number of other tips. Things like buying the right program – actually buying it, getting one for free isn’t the same thing – because you’ll have a greater sense of commitment if you fork out the dough than you would if it was handed to you at no cost or risk. It’s like anything in life, if it’s given to you there won’t be the same appreciation for it. But if it’s earned, you’re sure as hell not going to let it go to waste.
I could also get into training at the same time every day. Making it a part of your routine which will make it much more likely that you actually get to the gym on a consistent basis.
I could talk about a lot of stuff and techniques, but at the end of the day, most of the time it’s simply a matter of manning up. It’s time to stop using excuses or a way out. If you can’t set aside 3-4, 30-45 minute sessions a week, you don’t want it bad enough.
Therefore, you can’t complain when you have a heart attack. When you’re out of breath walking up a flight of stairs, or when you have to take breaks from playing with your kids. All of this getting in great shape stuff is up to you. I can give you the program, show you what to do, but I can’t make you do it.
YOU have to decide whether you want more energy, more speed, power, and athleticism. If you want to live a longer life, filled with more energetic and happier days. You have to decide if you want more confidence. If you want to be happy with who you are on the outside and in the inside.
Training isn’t just about building a good looking body. It’s about discipline. It’s about accomplishing a goal that actually takes hard work and dedication to achieve. If you aren’t happy with who you are, set a goal and achieve it.
It’s time to stop being coddled and to start doing. It’s time to man up!
