Hello everyone,
Exercise is a wonderful thing so long as it’s keep engaging & sustainable when starting out so that you don’t burn out too quickly. Once you start to see “major” results in our attitude, physique, and stamina, your desire for progress starts to take on it’s own momentum and heavy exertion becomes more rewarding than stressful. For relatively mediocre gym attendance/performance and average levels carb cutting, I’ve managed to loose 60 lbs (240 => 180) over the past year and put on quite a bit of muscle. I went from not being able to do a single pull up to now being able to do about 5. I am not a natural athlete by any means and have had to use several tricks to boost motivation in the absence of female or social approval.
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Here are some of the carrots I’d used prior to habituating a consistent routine:
– Structure work outs around outings, enjoy coffee/dinner/company at a venue close to the gym so that you are already proximal to the gym.
– Work/study and drink coffee, drink coffee and listen to power metal / anthems / whatever gets you going until you start to day dream and cannot maintain your focus, take another coffee and unleash the beast at the gym.
– Jog to a diner an impressive distance away, this forces you to jog the same length back home and over time increases your range. Have a back up plan in case you somehow get stranded.
– Once you have sufficient range and your work isn’t too physically exhausting, try jogging to work. Try taking public transport to work and then jogging home when you most need to release stress. Try jogging in your work cloths for the spectacle it makes and the cheap thrill of looking like someone who just won the lottery and put in their last day.
– Try on cloths that are -just- too small, take pictures of the cloths and think about how awesome they’re going to look once you’ve slimmed up one more inch.
– If you’re into tattoos, think about how much more impressive your tattoos are going to look planned around your physique rather than getting them prior to your transformation and hoping they don’t distort too badly.
– Surround yourself with people who have a similar desire to you to go to the gym, you will be invited to work out with people and this will increase your desire.
– Set practical goals. If you were a weak milquetoast like me you’ll want to have very basic practical goals like (Can I draw a bow?, Can I pull my fat ass over a wall?, etc.)
– Set performance goals so that you can use your new found abilities to do cool things. I haven’t done this yet but I’d like to acquire some urban exploration gear and go spelunking through abandoned buildings and such, this is going to require upper body strength from time to time.
– Keep pictures of your prior self around to remind you of where you once were and could one day return – look at them and cringe.
– Get a 24/hr gym membership so you have one less excuse to skip or feel pressured to get a poorly motivated work out in now when you would rather take some time to get hyped up first.
– Do not reject delusions of grandeur, desire for revenge, ideological enthusiasm, or magico-religious thought as acceptable forms of motivation. These sources may be highly irrational, but one can indulge in mental fantasy and emotional intensity induced by these visions to increase work out intensity or artificially boost motivation.
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What are some of the strategies you’ve used to motivate yourself in your earlier stages of development when you are most vulnerable to getting discouraged/distracted? What about in the later stages when you already feel you’re in the top 10%? How do you motivate yourself when isolated? How do you encourage others and engage them in your routine?
Crazy Canuck 4 years, 8 months ago.
