I didn’t realize that August was the beginning of something until after I succeeded. I’d skip a day or two, and pretty soon I’d stop showing at the gym altogether, becoming the stereotypical person who starts the new year with lofty weight loss goals and abandons them when the going gets rough.Įventually, I did accomplish the goal I set in my weight loss resolutions each year, but that journey didn’t begin January 1st. Not even close. It was between August 2011 and October 2012 that I lost 120 pounds. A meal that completely undermined every health goal ever set forth by anyone. I’d show up to the gym in January side-by-side with the men who were put on diets by their wives and the women who want to feel more comfortable in a bathing suit this summer, and for about two weeks, I’d dutifully serve my time on the cardio equipment and hit the mat to do all my crunches. But then one day something would always come up. When it comes to my New Year’s resolutions, it was probably only surpassed in frequency by “This year I’m going to have a boyfriend,” or “This year I’m committing to not being so quiet and weird.” In fact, I can say with confidence that “losing weight” or “eating better” was probably my staple resolution from the year 2003 through 2011. It is those habits that, in the end, will ultimately define success.I used to be a Resolutioner. Discipline develops confidence and patience.ĭiscipline builds consistency and consistency yields habits. Motivation in and of itself typically fails to build other qualities necessary for advancement, but discipline does. There is another clear line defining the difference between motivation and discipline. You can thank motivation for the first three weeks or so of your successful gym attendance, but after that you need to credit discipline. Discipline means repetitive – and sometimes boring – action. The keys to discipline are practice and consistency. Another way to think of it is having the ability, not necessarily the desire, to do what you need to when you least want to.įailure to get up when the alarm rings, the inability to walk away from a late night of partying before game day or eating a doughnut when you have committed to no processed sugar are all failures of discipline - not motivation. Discipline, as I define it, is the ability to do what is necessary for success when it is hardest to do so. If motivation won’t help you reach your goals, what will? In other words, don’t totally discount the value of motivation, but don’t count on it to last long either because it won’t. Motivation helps with short-term objectives, but is virtually useless for objectives that require a greater length of time to accomplish. When people buy gym memberships, they have the best of intentions in mind, but the commitments are made in a charged emotional state. If someone attempting to get in shape is reliant upon this reaction to propel them towards working out, they are almost sure to burn out, just like with a resolution. Think of it this way: No one can laugh or cry indefinitely, and that is exactly how we know that motivation will fail.Įmotion is a chemical release yielding a physiological response.
But since motivation is based on emotion, it can’t last long. For some, a New Year’s resolution can serve as a motivator. Motivation is driven by emotion and that can be positive, as long as it is used for a short-term objective. But when there is no immediate objective or goal in site, getting up that early is much harder. Personally, I have no issues getting up on a cold and dark morning to train when a competition is drawing near. It took me years of experience and research to figure out why, but I believe she was right. Years back, when I was at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of the sports psychologists told me that motivation is a lie.
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