Michael Ryan of RnR Fitness, Tralee, on how motivation and willpower is so important…
This week we are going to touch on the subject of motivation and willpower and how it plays such a vital role in helping you reach your fitness goals.
The mind and the power of the mind are often overlooked by many when discussing the ingredients of the successful implementation of a workout plan or regimen.
If you take the time to take full control of your thoughts and motivations, and understand how they influence your actions, you will be astonished as to how much they will help you not only realise your fitness goals, but also the goals in other avenues of your life.
Below is a list of tips to help you stay motivated and to direct your thoughts and actions positively towards helping you reach your fitness goals.
Continued below…
Visualisation
When you visualise your goals as reached or fulfilled ambitions in your mind, it brings into sharp focus your exact position on the path of reaching your goal.
This creates a positive conflict within your mind, and you begin to think and feel for solutions as to how you will bridge the gap of where you currently are and where you want to be in the future.
This act of visualisation will help create new levels of motivation you’ll start to notice you are unexpectedly doing things that take you towards your goal. All of a sudden, you are eating less junk food, running that extra mile, whatever it may be.
Whatever your fitness goal or ambition, take a few moments each day and imagine it what it will be like and feel to achieve it.
Manage expectations
Whether you’re new to exercise or an experienced gym user, we all have different fitness goals and ambitions. One of the first stumbling blocks many people fall at is the mismanagement of expectations and goals.
Unrealistic expectations of how quickly you want to see transformations in your fitness and the timeframe to which you achieve your goals, is one of the main reasons people lose motivation and lose sight and track of their goal.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Make a conscious effort to control your thought of wanting instant success and begin to realise that any fitness journey big or small will take time.
Share your visions and goals
You’ll find when you share your fitness goals with friends and family, they’ll want to help you to reach your goal. They will help you stay motivated and may introduce you to people and extra resources to help you fulfil your ambition.
By sharing your fitness ambitions to others and tell your friends and family of your vision it will help you feel the goal as a real and attainable.
It will help you strengthen your own subconscious belief that you can achieve it. Friends and family will also help you recover from any setbacks, many of which are inevitably, and remind you constantly of the fitness goal you set yourself.
• Michael Ryan is part of RnR Fitness: Qualified and Certified Personal, Trainers, Fitness Instructors and Sports Nutrition Consultants. See their Facebook page here
