How do you stay motivated? Forum Respawn

[Mind Link Shapes]

I posted awhile ago and recently fell off the 'level up your life' a little bit while I'm still working on my character I have lost a little enthusiasm. How do you stay motivated? I'm thinking about keeping a detailed log on the forum. Maybe that would help. Also, today I edited some of my goals to try to stay fresh. I'm thinking about starting some sort of blog, but I'm not sure I'm ready to really go at it.  Anyone else have any good ideas?

[Three Two Seven]

Having a goal to shoot for always keeps me motivated.  Right now I have two: (1) I'm having a hydrostatic body composition test at the end of February to get an accurate measure of my body fat.  Even though this is just my baseline - I plan to do it every six months - I want to go in as lean as possible.  (2) I'm getting married in March, so the vain side of me wants to look good for that.  

 

So maybe if you set a small goal like that it would help.

 

I started a daily battle blog too.  I didn't do it for anyone to read.  I mainly did it for me as a journal about how I'm feeling about my work out and eating habits.  Plus I want to be able to go back at the end of the year and see what progress I've made.  

 

Above all...when it comes to working out...find something you love and do that.  For years, I thought I was too old to lift weights so I focused on cardio at the gym.  I HATE cardio so in turn, I hated going to the gym - not to mention I wasn't losing any weight or gaining any muscle.  So one day I decided I'd venture back into weights.  I started slowly and did a lot of research to make sure I wasn't doing anything to hurt myself.  I've always loved the challenge of lifting weights.  So now I'm disappointed when I have to miss a session and going to the gym is something I look forward to (even with a 4am wake up call to do it).  Find something you love to do and working out becomes fun instead of a chore!

[Mind Link Shapes]

Thanks for the reply,

 

I think it is helping to set up a countdown to when I hope to have my goals completed. I also had somewhat of a revelation. I was reading a book called the motivation manifesto. He was talking about how action breeds motivation. It really struck a chord in me. The more action you take the more you will be motivated. It's like I've always known this, but it helps to take a very literal view on the topic. 

[Nater]

My main motivator is energy. I used to have enough endurance to go all day and I have lost that as I have gotten older. I enjoy going on long mountain bike rides and hikes on my days off and want to be able to take my son to the same state parks for weekend adventures.

My job has weight requirements which I just barely fall under at the moment. Keeping my job is pretty strong motivation to avoid gaining any more weight. I also see a lot of patients with serious, long term health complications that are largely due to a lifetime of poor diet and exercise. I can't let myself get like that if I can avoid it.

Accountability keeps the motivation going. At work, we walk around in our down time and work on active stretching daily to help prevent injuries. We can't do a full workout like many firefighters can, but at least we try to stay active. Many of our crews use fitbits and have a weekly step competition. I think once you get into the habit of regular exercise, your body will start to crave the hormones released when working out. This is a good kind of addiction to keep you going too.