Enjoy the Process

Following on from last week’s newsletter about showing your body some love, it seemed appropriate to talk this week about motivation. Or rather not needing to have motivation to create change in your life.

Often changing your lifestyle is portrayed as some major event that requires a lot of motivation to start the process of change. 

Media outlets and social media channels peddle this, in my opinion, false narrative, and in doing so put many people off attempting to become healthier or fitter or leaner or stronger; preventing them from being as healthy as possible for fear of failure or because they “lack the motivation” to change.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

Previous editions of this newsletter have talked about slow and steady winning the race, starting small and building from there and celebrating small wins.

Sure, we have to have the desire for change to start to make the necessary alterations in our lifestyle, but desire and motivation are not the same thing.

Desire is a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

Motivation on the other hand is this large, amorphous entity that many people are on a quest to find. Not unlike those who, in mediaeval times, searched for the Holy Grail. They know it is out there somewhere, and have heard amazing stories about it, and some even think they know where to find it.

And some people have made a large amount of money talking and writing about how to find your motivation.

Perhaps I am missing a trick, but in my head there is a much simpler way to get motivated, and that is to do something. Do something small, but quantifiable and actionable. Action in itself will provide the momentum and further motivation for other change, especially if that action is celebrated. 

When you started to walk as a toddler, there was a process involved. You rolled over. Then crawled. Followed by reaching up and grabbing furniture to stand up. Baby steps came next. And soon enough you were walking, and then running and being chased by frantic parents as you disappeared, giggling, out into the garden.

Where was the motivation for this change? Or did one action lead to another?

Most parents celebrate their children’s process of rolling, crawling, standing and walking as it happens, giving praise along the way. Each small ‘win’ is celebrated. And in that celebration the motivation for further change happens.

It is the same with us as adults. 

Most of us need the internal, and possibly external, validation for us to keep on attempting to make changes. That can apply to any aspect of our lives: health, wealth, careers and more. And the easiest way to get that validation is by celebrating the small wins, the low hanging fruit, the stuff that is easy to do and obtain.

Hang on… Are you saying don’t have big goals, but just shoot for the small stuff?

Not at all.

Having a big goal is a good thing. Nothing wrong with wanting to be as healthy (or whatever your goal is) as possible. But how do you start on the journey of getting there? Do you wait for the clouds to part and a big bolt of motivation to appear and hit you between the eyes? Or do you take those baby steps towards the goal?

Taking small steps towards that goal is the process of breaking down the entire journey into small, achievable and actionable steps. Steps that can be celebrated along the way, thus creating the impetus for further small steps of the process to be taken as you enjoy the process of change.

And that is the key: enjoying the process.

Which is why, in the world of health and fitness there are so many different ways to become fit, strong and healthy. Lots of people means lots of different strata of enjoyment. In short you have to enjoy what you are doing, or at the very least enjoy the outcomes of what you are doing. 

Some people enjoy overcoming the challenges of getting fitter, stronger and healthier. Others enjoy the actions themselves. Others still enjoy the way exercise makes them feel, or enjoy what it allows them to do.

It is a long journey, but the beauty of exercise is that it all counts and it all adds up. Like many things in life, it benefits from a compound effect. So while the results may not be immediately visible, they become so in time. 

Roman philosopher, Musonius Rufus shared a lesson on long-term thinking in his writings, Lectures and Fragments, Fragment 51: “If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labour passes quickly, but the good endures…”

So, think long term and think big, and enjoy the process along the way.

If you’d like to make changes and become fitter, leaner, stronger and healthier but are not sure how to go about it click the link below for a chat.