Q&A – Myth Motivation: Where it comes from and how it stays!
We all know the feeling. Summer is here and we pick up our sports routine full of enthusiasm – only to find our intentions wane after a few days! At this point, you might already have spent a lot of money on expensive sports equipment or filled your shelves with supposedly healthy food that you don’t even like.
Motivation to get fit comes and goes, but how do you manage to stick to your goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle in the long-run?
We spoke to sports scientist, mental coach and fitness model @chrissi_joy to find out how you can tame your inner demons, lace up your trainers and do something great for yourself and your body…
Chrissi is passionate about helping people reach their full potential. In her coaching sessions everything revolves around courage, self-confidence and lightness! With her fresh and friendly style she motivates her community to achieve their most challenging goals and provides them with new motivating inspirations every day via social media and her podcast.
3…2…1… Let’s go!
Myth 1 – Only discipline will quench your cravings
To really stay motivated in the long term, I always recommend the approach of “taking the pressure off and moving towards joy.” If we want to build lasting routines, we have to have fun and do something that we associate with a positive feeling.
I believe that we should never fight the inner demons, but rather make a kind of friendship with them. Just the idea of how good we feel after the training often helps give yourself a boost, and you know deep down that training feels good. And that’s exactly the point!
The motivation must be honest. Imposed, strict rules might work for a while, but after that we just lose motivation again!
Myth 2 – Only professional athletes need mental training
Mental training is about networking new neurons in the brain – in other words, ultimately changing the structure of how we think. Our brain and subconscious can’t really distinguish reality from our imagination.
Thus, we create a state that we only imagine at first, but which evokes certain emotions.
So we can create motivation through our imagination alone – for example by having our goal in mind. What we can imagine in detail, we can also achieve!
It’s also helpful we ask ourselves the right questions. “What exactly does my goal look like? Why do I want to achieve this goal? What exactly is different then? What could be the next 3 steps to reach this goal?”
Thus the subconscious and conscious part of us – like a search engine – looks for answers. Automatically we focus on the overall result and on the necessary steps that lead to it. And that motivates us tremendously. 🙂
Myth 3 – Being alone rather than together is more effective
Sport in a group can be super motivating. There are days when I love to train in a group because the collective energy pushes and motivates me. On other days I prefer to listen to my own music and do my own thing.
But we commit quite differently when we’ve arranged to do sports with friends or in a registered group course. Both strategies are beneficial and motivation depends on variety to keep the joy and momentum high.
Myth 4 – Every minute counts!
If you have time, effective planning is essential. For example, high intensity interval training is great if you want to work out holistically within a short period of time. In general, it’s important to incorporate sufficient exercise into your everyday life in daily activities. That means choosing the stairs instead of the elevator, bike instead of car or walk instead of sofa.
For example, my fitness tracker motivates me to take at least 10,000 steps every day. It doesn’t always have to be a sweaty workout, but the general movement counts and the tracker makes it fun.
And don’t forget, dancing to loud music is always a balm for the soul 😉
Myth 5 – He who rests, rusts
Breaks are important – mentally and spiritually. You should consciously build in breaks for recovery and regeneration and you should not have a bad conscience about it.
You will only benefit from your training in the recovery phases. If you consciously take time out and allow yourself some rest, you will stay motivated longer.
After a long break from fitness I would recommend starting again WITHOUT pressure and setting yourself realistic goals. By achieving small successes you can be proud of yourself, so your motivation will stay high.
If you start too strong, you might not start at all. Pressure always creates counter pressure. Motivation follows joy. It’s as simple as that! So, be sure to reward yourself after training!
Q&A
With Q&A we get to the bottom of controversial topics every two weeks! Now it’s your turn: If you have further questions for our expert @chrissi_joy, just ask her on our Instagram Channel or via her profile.
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