Don’t Wait for motivation

Motivation is not a necessity.

Sure it's awesome when it's there but what do you do when it's not?

Do you have to pause on your goals? Or give up on them entirely?

Fuck that.

Think of a task that you don't enjoy doing but that you do it anyways.
Maybe it's doing the dishes? Or taking out the trash.

A model for conceptualizing behaviour is the Fogg Behaviour Model.
Behaviour= motivation + ability + prompt

A prompt is a something that reminds you to do something. For taking out the trash, that would probably be garbage day.

Conveniently taking out the trash does not require a lot of ability. So it can still be accomplished with minimal motivation.

When motivation is low we need simple tasks and strong prompts.
When motivation is high we can manage more challenging tasks.

Maybe you aren't motivated to go to the gym. You don't like the workout that you have programmed.
So what do you do?

Yes you could not go. Maybe you could benefit from some down time and recovery.

Or maybe you ask for someone to go with you. You schedule a time. That's a prompt.
Or maybe you change the task to be more in alignment with your motivation. Maybe you change the order of your workout to do the things you enjoy first. Or maybe you totally go off script and do random things that you feel like doing.

As a coach I look for consistency. Because that is where you will get results. I want to keep the behaviour going. So that means consistently having appropriate prompts and tasks that match motivation in the moment.