Feed Your Motivation Meter
Motivation needs progress reports like politicians need hand sanitizer. It lives and
dies with improvement. How long would you work out if you looked worse every day?
Here's the rub: the benefits of healthy living aren't always easy to see, at least not
at first. They are there, but you can't always seem them. In a world demanding instant
and visible results, the motivation to continue with a program that doesn't transform
flab into a six-pack overnight starts to fade. It's up to you to stop it.
You might see no difference in the mirror after a week of working out. At a distance,
then, it would seem fruitless. But if a closer look revealed that you could do more
push-ups, more pull-ups, and run farther, you would come to the opposite conclusion.
The key, then, is to uncover the small, promising increments of progress that are hard
to detect.
1. The first step is to get your starting point. If you want to improve your strength,
use your next workout to write down your maximum number for every exercise. If you
want to be able to run greater distances, measure your current ability. If you want to
cut down on snacks, keep track this week of how much you eat. These are your starting
points, the baseline from which you want to improve.
2. The second step is to track your results. After putting in place whatever plan
you've chosen for improvement, write down your numbers. Do this every time the chance
comes up, and make it easy. If your goal involves weight lifting, keep a chart
on the wall of your workout room. If it involves eating, keep a journal or notebook
near the kitchen.
3. The last step is to recognize your progress. You might not have a different body,
either inside or out, immediately after starting your project. But with the numbers
you've been keeping, you'll see improvement. That's what matters. You'll be heading in
the right direction, knowing that your efforts are paying off.
If you find the numbers sliding in an unhappy direction, don't worry. This is
priceless information. It tells you to change your strategy, which in turn will save
you from weeks, months, or years of doing the wrong things. After making a change,
your numbers will tell you whether or not you're on the right path.
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