On this post, I received this comment:
Interesting. I’m dealing with this motivation issue. With all the information, with all the tools one would neeed, fitness plans and workout clothing. Yet and still me sedentary days and bad meal days outweigh the good ones. I don’t mind exercising. I hate eating right. Its bland, its boring, its of no feel good value. Its like going off of drugs I’d assume. Its the hardest thing I’ve ever tried and the one thing I keep failing to accomplish. And since exercise is 20%, if my diet is a wreck what’s the point.
I clicked on this hoping to be, inspired. I wasn’t. Read more of the same. Its in you. You have to do it. Your health, better you. And I’m still not motivated or driven to do better.
I’ve got to be honest. I don’t believe in “motivation.” I think it’s a myth… foolishness. I think it’s something created by people who profit off of selling me that “motivation.” The idea that someone could create a mythical emotional entity between my brain and my brain’s ability to make me move… is probably the most profitable thing I’ve ever seen in my damn life.
I don’t need to be motivated to pay my electricity bill, because I know what happens when I don’t pay my electricity bill.
I don’t need to be motivated to brush my teeth, because I know what happens when I don’t brush my teeth.
I don’t need to be motivated to walk my dogs each day, because I know – unfortunately, all too well – what happens when I don’t walk my dogs.
And now, I don’t need to be motivated to eat like I have some sense, because I know – again, all too well – what happens when I don’t eat like I have some sense.
Why do I need to be motivated to make appropriate decisions each day when it comes to what I put in my mouth? Why do I need to be motivated to take care of myself? Why do I need some external source of compulsion to make me do, for myself, what NO EXTERNAL SOURCE can make me do? I’m a grown woman – at this point, not even my Mommy (who I know is reading this right now) can make me do something I don’t want to do.
What is this motivation that people keep talking about? What happens if you never receive motivation? What happens if, in fact, that “thing” that you’re looking for never comes? Back when I used to host weekly chats on the FB page about different shows, people swore up and down that those shows “motivated” them, compelled them to do the work. What happens when the season is over and the show is gone?
In all seriousness, I actually fear ever having an external source of “motivation.” What happens when that thing that makes you go… goes away? All the women I know who were losing weight trying to get a man, and once they got that man… the motivation was gone, as was the drive to lose weight/keep it off.
I’m sorry, but it feels like people just overthink it. It’s not a matter of sitting down and contemplating putting on your kicks and heading out the door. It’s a matter of putting on your kicks and heading out the door. The minute I sit down to think about it? I’ve already lost. Why? I’ve already sat down… the “thinking” part is just me giving myself an opportunity to talk myself out of it. It’s not a matter of needing to be “motivated.” I don’t need a reason to take care of myself. I just get up and go.
I mean, the comment mocks the idea of “it’s in you,” but it’s not whether or not it’s “in you.” You just feel like you have more reasons to eat poorly, and less reasons to eat sensibly. For you, it’s more valuable to eat whatever you want than it is to pursue flavors and tastes and foods that are enjoyable. I don’t know what that “it” is that is, apparently, in me… but what I do know is that once I had my “come to fitness” moment, I made a conscious decision to leave my emotional eating behind and figure out a way to enjoy the foods I had relegated myself to… and even though that mental transformation didn’t happen overnight, every day that I made an active decision to not give in, was a day that I got a little bit better at it. It was a day that I got closer. Progress matters.
So, consider this an open thread. Someone – anyone – please… help me figure this motivation thing out. Where did it come from? And, for goodness sake, how can we make it go away?