Motivation is the most significant predictor of success. But as you, motivation is sometimes hard to find and very hard to keep. While it's well known that motivation requires breaking habits and behavior patterns, motivation can also come from something deep inside - an internal drive that fosters action.
Whereas sometimes we feel that "pressure" inside to train, eat better or make a lifestyle change, it's important that you are able to stay motivated in the face of obstacles, fatigue, boredom, stress, distractions and oh yes, the holiday season that seems to be oh-so-busy!
Motivation is different for everyone. Explore your unique motivation that drives you to work toward your goals.
Instead of feeling pressure to do something, feel inspired to do something.
Instead of lowering your goals to match your struggling motivation, boost your effort to reach your goals.
I know this is a very busy time of the year but I'd like to share a personal story from Karel (as featured on my blog in January) to inspire you to keep at it, even when you don't feel like it.
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It is understandable to feel a lack of motivation in the cold winter months, especially if you live in a place where there is not much community support or friends who do the same sport and have similar goals as you do.
We all go through these stages of not feeling the motivation to train and we try to use all kinds of tricks to make us put in the work. When I get into the state of low motivation, I often refer back to time when I was injured with the tear in my plantar fascia and couldn't train or race for much of the summer. I was miserable all summer and I would have given anything for the ability just go for a slow jog.
I went to Lake Placid in July 2015, which was suppose to be my big Ironman race of the season before my first IM Kona in October 2015, and being surrounded by several of our Trimarni athletes, I tried to be supportive and be a good coach,. but deep inside, I was struggling. I forced myself to pull out of the race with a DNF after the bike so that I would not do further damage to my foot.
Now, when I feel like not doing much, I look back at that time and use it as the extra power and motivation that I need to get myself to start and finish a workout. Because I CAN. I don't have an injury that prevents me from working out. I'm not in pain. I'm healthy.
Everyone is different and different things work for different athletes. Use your past struggles to keep you motivated for your future successes.