The starting phase
When we decide to lose weight, grow some muscle or in general develop healthier habits, getting started with a new thing usually feels "easy". We feel motivated in the beginning stages. We want to get started and feel energized, ready to put in the work.
A week later things usually already look different. Motivation is gone. Things don't feel easy anymore. The old habits are taking over again. We have failed to become consistent and push through... again.
Especially when it comes to fitness, a lot of us experience this over and over again. Every new year a new plan, a new diet, a new workout routine. But it almost never lasts. WHY?
Motivation never lasts long
It seems so hard to stick to something like a diet, a cardio routine or a workout for a longer time. Most of us try a large variety of diets for example when they want to lose weight. Keto, fasting, low fat, etc.. But usually none of it lasts (for 90% of us). And still people try over and over - REPEATING the same mistakes.
And that is the topic of this week's blog post. I will talk about the things, that most of the people who cant seem to develop consistency with fitness, overlook - the reasons for why they can't stick to their plans and stay "motivated".
I don't like to use the term "motivated" actually, because it doesn't really make sense here. Once you understood the following 6 tips, you do not really need to get "motivated" anymore. That is what A.Y.C.E. Fitness is all about. Implementing fitness into your LIFE - so it becomes just what you do and how you live. You will not need "motivation" anymore once things are part of your identity.
How to get out of the vicious circle
So like I said, most people tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. They keep trying different diets for example, but failing and stopping every time, unable to create results that last.
It reaches the point, where they are convinced that they are simply not "fitness people", or they claim they have "bad genetics" or "stubborn fat".
Spoiler alert: these are all excuses. But these people are not aware of the mistakes, that cause them to fail every single time. They do not know what the reason for their lack of consistency is.
I will give you 6 tips on how you can overcome this vicious circle of failed attempts, and how you can become consistent with fitness.
Let's get started with number 1.
1. Understad that you CAN do it
If you read this article right now, I assume you struggle with staying consistent and motivated. That also means you have probably tried the thing (diet, cardio, lifting, whatever) many times in the past and never got long-term results.
The problem: after so many tries, we feel as if achieving success outside of our control. Like I already mentioned, many people start to think " I'm just not made for fitness" or "I have bad genetics". But that is bullcrap.
It is nothing external, that is outside of your control, you are not born unable to become consistent, it is not your genetics or whatever . It is something inside you, that you CAN change - it is just your mindset.
You are in control of what happens. You can do it. It doesn't matter how many times you have tried before. In the past have simply focused on the wrong things. Now you will change your focus what actually matters when it comes to creating long-term results: Your mindset.
It's a fact that you are in control and that you can change.
2. AVOID perfectionism
When we do something, we want to do it RIGHT. We don't want to half-ass things. We want to give a 100% and reach our goals fast. Not slow.
But it is a marathon not a sprint. The sprinter burns out quick. The marathon runner is way slower, but gets so much further.
Perfectionism doesn't exist in reality. A perfect plan only exists on paper, not in the real life.
But still everyone tries to do things perfectly, especially in the beginning.
Trying to achieve something that doesn't exist is obviously impossible. But still, we keep trying, and it creates a lot of stress; and that's why we can't maintain it.
Accept the fact that things will never be perfect - and they don't have to be. Think about the marathon runner - we don't have to move fast.
Take a small step at first. Don't do the perfect thing, do SOMETHING - something that will take you ONE STEP closer to your goal. 1% better than last time. That is enough.
Find something that you can do now rather than something that seems perfect.
The "perfect" plan is the one that you can do today.
3. Regain the feeling of control
We know we are in control - but it doesn't feel like it. Things feel overwhelming. Improving the diet for example and losing fat is hard and very challenging.
And when something feels ovewhelming, we have to win the feeling of control back. How do we do that?
Start the process of improvement by doing something that is in your range, something little, like I explained with Tip number two. The goal is to "MASTER" that little thing - to regain control over it. It could be be something like eating a piece of fruit every morining, or going to the gym once a week.
Once you have "mastered" that little thing, implement the next thing. Your control over these different aspect of the fitness lifestyle grows week by week. You master one more small thing each week… or month - doesn't matter, we're not sprinters.
Implementing small changes and mastering them one by one is the key to big changes in the future. There is no way around it. This is how it is done. Everybody who has achieved something amazing had to go this way.
Increase your circle of control every week. Regain the feeling of control - and then increase it slowly. Feeling in control is the foundation for improving any further.
4. Start at YOUR current level
So we have regained the feeling of control, we are moving forward - but it feels slow, especially when we compare ourselves other people.
It seems other people achieve their goals faster than us. We catch ourselves looking at fitness influencers or just random other people and we think: Why am I not as lean, as big or as fit as they are?
That is one of the reasons why we fall back into our old habits and repeat our mistakes: we see a person on level X and neglect the fact that we are on a way lower level right now. And it is impossible to skip levels.
We have to start at our level - no matter what other people do, no matter what level they are on.
So many people want to skip their beginner level and just jump straight to level 10. From one day to the other they try to implement a strict workout plan, daily cardio and a keto diet. But that is level 10. And most people are at level 1.
Accept that you are at the beginning. Focus on improving one doable thing at a time, and like we said, master that thing first. Then move on to the next doable thing. This is how you level up.
It is very common to keep looking left and right. But comparing our journey to other people's journey makes no sense. It is simply IMPOSSIBLE.
Someone who is bigger or leaner than you for example might have lived a completely different life, has started to train earlier, has different genetics, lives in a different environment - he/she is simply on a different level than you.
You can’t compare your level 1 to somebody’s level 10.
Instead: Compare yourself only to the person you were yesterday. And then take the next logic step. Trying to skip levels is how you will lose motivation again.
Focus on YOUR current level. Stay in YOUR lane. Everything else does not matter.
5. Mistakes are to be expected
This is something that I have learned and experienced myself over the last years, also in aspects of life that are outside of fitness.
Mistakes WILL happen. And they are part of the process. Mistakes are not only part of your journey, they are the journey.
Making mistakes is how you learn and improve. Mistakes make you better. Everytime something doesn't work right away, it is a chance for improvement. So do not stop - instead reflect and improve.
The only way to get anywhere in your fitness journey is to make mistakes and to fail - and then keep moving forward - NOT stopping. The people who can't develop consistency are the ones that stop.
You will keep trying to implement things into your routine that are too hard or that won't get you anywhere. You will overeat during your diet. You will skip training days. You will fuck up countless times.
But THIS is the journey! This is part of it as much as the wins are part of it. This is how it works, this is how you learn, this is how you grow. Welcome the mistakes, do not let them get to your head.
So many people make the mistake of stopping when they make mistakes. "Shit, I keep making mistakes. This isn't for me. It seems i'm really bad at this."
No you are not.
This brings us to tip number 6:
6. It is STILL your journey - no matter wat happens
When something didn't work perfectly (and we learned now: that's normal), remind yourself that this is still your journey. It doesn't stop because something didn't work.
You ate 6000 calories yesterday? Ok, tomorrow we will get back on track.
It is still the your journey. You didn't fall off. It is still your journey.
So you didn't go to the gym the whole week? Ok, you simply pack your bag now and go tomorrow after work. You did't fall off. It is still your journey.
You decide to keep going. You are still consistent when you decide to keep going.
It is not perfect but it is still in the somewhere on the scale. Dont think in extremes. avoid thinking in terms of "I AM on a diet or i am NOT on a diet". You are never dieting actually, you are always living, and while you're living you're making mistakes and you're improving. The journey continues. We continue to learn. 1% better every week.
Mentally admitting defeat is what so many people do, when something is not perfect and they feel like they have failed at some point on their journey. That's the moment they give up. That is when they lose the motivation.
What should you do when something didn't work? First of all: the journey continues. Now what you can do is making the task easier. It was obviously not on your current level. It was probably above.
So make it easier. You tried to diet on 2000 calories but you couldn't do it. You binged and ate 5000 calories of ice cream. Ok.
Then diet on 2500. Find the thing that works for you.
These 6 tips can help you develop the right mindset to become able to stay consistent. Read this article again (and again) in the future to remind yourself of what actually matters.
You can always take the next step, because you are in control. Stick to your current level, level up by 1% every week, and fuck perfectionism. And if something didn't work the way you wanted it to work, keep in mind: mistakes are normal and part of the journey.