We have all been in this place as trainers, clients, players and coaches, anyone that ever wanted something where you find your self overcome. It's time to go, time to work, time to improve, Like a bolt of lightning into your brain you now have a million ideas and a million ways to start on your journey, like at the start of an epic film with the conception of an idea, theory, and action.You jump up a changed person with the voices of Arnie, Ronnie, and Ali all ringing in your head at the same time. You are motivated my friend, and all you can think about is the fact that you're going to succeed.
Almost by surprise you will realise at some point that you’ve done no actual problem solving to make changes. The feeling of being motivated fades and you have to work around setbacks and hardships that weren’t in your head listening to rush music and watching pre-pump vids on youtube. It’s easy to get caught up browsing images of the end game whilst chewing fat with training partners/teammates. But the likelihood of being able to act on that lighting bolt any time around its conception is unlikely, and you are left with a better understanding of your training gaol but the dropkick that the hard work to earn it hasn’t started yet, And that motivation that got you to this point? well, it’s nowhere to be seen. Days pass and you haven’t made any of those changes you said you needed.
**HERES WHERE THE CROWD SPLITS**
Motivation is fake, daydreams of starting a new program or building up to win a game are false, a placebo. I believe the feeling of motivation is a real thing but its misrepresented, hold on I'll get there.
This isn’t about your outlook and cup half full vs half empty bulls**t but more understanding the mechanics, conception, and realisations that get misconstrued as motivations that most people get wrong. Go to the gym, work wherever and you will find people moaning about the lack of motivation.
Let's face it as humans we are hardwired for the path of least resistance, evolution has hi-lighted the easy way for us so that we may save energy for the fight we don’t know about, the one we can't see coming. It’s comfortable its familiar and whether you like it or not based on most short term logic models your brain will tell you its the path of reason. However, we tend to pick out goals that are usually not at the end of the easy path.
So people get it wrong, motivation isn’t a magical driving force that pushes us through obstacles and hard training cycles. That lightning bolt you got was your brain telling you that you have found a problem that needs fixing, but you still need to do the hard bit and actually fix it. It's just the realisation you want change. However, that motivation that set all these thoughts into motion will have long dissipated by this time.
Occasionally you will be able to dig it back up, watch the same videos listen to the same songs to rekindle that mental association. Over the years playing and training I’ve seen some great rituals, some lasting hours that ultimately waste energy (a chat for another time maybe). Usually, the longer that person uses that ritual the longer or more complex it gets, but what happens when that ritual gets interrupted or you cant revive that motivation. Slip off? Wait for that lightning bolt to strike again?
ENTER CONSISTENCY
Bout time right?
Now not wanting to rag on motivation too much it gets you somewhere and that's good, but a lack of it shouldn’t become an excuse or barrier to your training. For me and many people, I’ve trained and still do a point came when it was just easier to drop it. I won't lie it was like finding out Father Christmas isn’t real or that my first protein powder won’t actually make me huge. However once past that it was oddly empowering to cut away this placebo that kept me tucked up on a cold night from its absence, and used the realisation that CONSTANCY had to take over at some point and that consistency was now the source for my discipline. Not the on/off feeling of being motivated.
It boils down to the fact that motivation is for the most part and external influence, you see something or hear something that makes you feel motivated or more truthfully inspires change. By its nature, it is inconsistent and no one got great at anything by being inconstant. If you want to train like a beast or play like a pro then you need to have the discipline to train like that beast and play like that pro each time you’re given the chance.
Knowing consistency is the way to get what you want, and what so many others want is grown up, nuts and bolts training. It should convince you leave the house at 5 am because it's the only chance you have to train with work and commit to a clean diet for an extended period of time. That is what the target should be, not to chase motivation like Bigfoot across the length of a program. Because even if you manage that there is no chance to stay consistently motivated and the level you apply your self will peak and fall. Motivation, Understanding the power of constancy is the difference between hunting for motivation and maintaining discipline.
Time to grow up, Time to be Consistent.