No matter what happens in life, you’re not always going to be 100% motivated. Whether it’s at work or in your personal life motivation will peak and trough from time to time and that’s perfectly acceptable. What’s important is to realise when and why it’s happening and having a route back to where we want to be to get us back on the straight and narrow.
There are many reasons as to why someone might experience low motivation:
1. Burn out – you’ve been working or training too hard for too long and you need a break. Low motivation is your body telling you something. You may well need a rest. Cut your hours down, have a holiday or have some time off training.
2. Your routine may have become stale. Freshening up your working routine or your workout plan can often reinvigorate and reenergise you to push on and get stuck in again.
3. Something could well have gone wrong. You’ve been pushing for a promotion and it didn’t quite come off. You’ve been trying really hard to improve your 5k time for a few months and it’s just not getting faster.
4. You may have had an extended leave of absence. A couple of weeks away on holiday relaxing and enjoying yourself, as you should. Getting back into a routine can often seem daunting or hard.
All of these things are perfectly normal situations to find yourself in and there is nothing wrong with it. As humans we experience tremendous variability in emotions, daily tasks and just everyday life, so it’s highly unlikely you’re going to feel 100% motivated every single day of your life. The good news is there is ALWAYS a way back. Let’s revisit that list and see if we can give you the tools you need if you ever find yourself in such a position.
1. Burn out – sometimes we just need to take a step back, it’s that simple. Often, you’ll hear things like ‘no days off’ or ‘resting is for quitters’ when actually, the body needs to rest and recover. If you keep pushing and keep pushing, no matter what walk of life you’re in, the likelihood is you’ll push too far and something will give out.
This is why every 4-6 weeks I will program in a de-load week for my athletes and for myself. This doesn’t mean stopping training completely, it simply means decreasing the volume and intensity of what you are doing. The weights become lighter, the sessions become shorter but the general layout stays the same. A de-load week acts like active recovery and allows you to recover whilst still doing something. However, this doesn’t mean you have to be active during your time off, feel free to do nothing.
Sophie and I are going to Florida on our honeymoon in September. You’d better believe aside from walking and eating my bodyweight in food I’m having some time off. Once the de-load/rest week has been completed, build the intensity and volume back up slowly and you’ll feel much better for it.
2. Vary/freshen up your routine – Sometimes a daily routine, be it at home or in the gym can become stale after a while. Personally, I LOVE routine and will do the same thing every morning before work. However, that doesn’t work for everyone. People need variation and the gym is no different. This isn’t to say that you should or shouldn’t be changing exercises week on week or even from session to session, that’s entirely down to personal preference. A new varied workout plan from time to time allows things to be refreshed and revitalised… If you feel like things are getting stale in the gym or with whatever training you’ve been doing, try a new plan.
3. Speedbumps and things not going to plan – as humans we are hardwired to take it personally when things don’t go our way. It’s annoying, we’ve been working hard and ultimately, no one enjoys failure but as long as you learn from it, I personally believe failure is one of, if not the best teacher. First and foremost, we need to assess what went wrong. A thorough analysis of what happened, why it happened and how we can adjust next time will be pivotal to progress. Once we have assessed previous performances, we can set long, medium and short-term goals to not only help us layout how to reach our targets, they will keep us motivated and pushing forwards.
4. Restarting – after a leave of absence from anything, getting back to where we were previously and getting back into a routine can be daunting. Starting with small tasks such as a short workout or a mini session. There’s a lot to be said for getting the ball rolling and just getting stuck in little by little. Don’t worry if you’re not immediately smashing your PB’s or lifting the same weights you were previously; an adjustment period will be in play. Just getting going again will be more than enough.
I hope this blog on motivation, potential barriers and how to overcome them has helped, as ever if you want to chat or want any further information on anything in this blog, please send me a DM on Instagram or an email to Ryan@holmerunfitness.com
Comments