If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.

Tom Hanks

Quick Summary

If you find yourself struggling to stay motivated with your workouts and sticking to your workout program, or just goals in general, hopefully this blog will help show you what you can do in order to stay consistent and see results.

Without the right mindset, results will only get farther away from you until you begin to lose that motivation. Today, I will provide you four steps that you can take in order to get more consistent with your workout routine and make sure you have the right mindset going into your goals.

The information I provide here is a paraphrase of what Jeff Cavalier talks about in his video. This video is linked at the bottom of this post.

• Stop making goals without the whys and hows. The whys and hows are what ultimately fuel you to stay dedicated to your goals, without them you have no reason to continue striving to achieve them.

• “Do not prioritize your schedule, schedule your priorities,” in other words, select a specific time to focus on your priorities throughout your day. For example, working out in the mornings three times a week; making working out a part of your schedule.

• Be practical! Making sure you leave your feelings out of the table can save a lot of headaches and guilt that can do more bad than good; ultimately dragging you farther away from success. If you don’t perform as well as you thought you did in a workout, or even miss a day, don’t stress out about it! No one is perfect, get back to your normal routine the next day or as soon as possible. Going to the gym should be fun, but shouldn’t be something that is driven by your feelings; it should just be doing you know you need to do at a certain time in your day, just like school or work.

• Remove your options! Analysis paralysis is the worst thing you can encounter when setting out your goals, and can ultimately slow down your progress substantially. Don’t look for the best option, find one you like and follow through with it! Looking at all of the options and trying to find the perfect one will prevent you from even starting your goal in the first place, get out there and don’t waste your precious time!
  
• Do not compare someone else’s chapter 10 to your chapter 1. Comparing yourself to others does more good than bad, do yourself a favor and don’t compare yourself to others, especially on social media. Social media is a place where everyone controls how they look, meaning every picture you see posted is an image of their upmost best self, and most of the time unrealistic. Stay in your lane and don’t focus on others, trust me.

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Before starting, its important to understand the two types of consistency: voluntary and involuntary consistency.

Voluntary consistency are the decisions you consciously make in order to stick to your plan and follow through with it.

Involuntary inconsistency is what’s out of your control that might be stopping you from training; for example, being sick or injured.

As Jeff mentioned, being consistent with bad advice, makes you consistently bad, potentially leading you to be involuntarily inconsistent with your workouts. With that being said, you will need to focus on these four things if you’re looking make results and sustain them.

Stop Making Goals Without a Why and a How

Goals are great and all, but without having your reason as to why you want to achieve your goal and how you’re going to do it, it’s only downhill from there.

This is why so many people fail to consistently work towards their goals, their heart is in on it, but their mind is somewhere else.

Let’s say you want to lose weight before your beach trip next summer, ask yourself why. To impress your friends? To make yourself feel good? These will fuel your ambition, as you will look back and remind yourself why you’re doing all of this in the first place.

Next is the how; how will you reach your goal? Now that you have an idea of where you want to be in a specific time period, you work backwards.

I will lose weight by following a six day push/pull/leg program while progressively overloading and doing cardio in order to lose fat, and maintain my muscle mass so I can comfortably go shirtless in the beach.

Schedule your Priorities

Rather than simply saying you’re going to workout on Monday, isn’t going to cut it. In order for you to really do what you want to do, you need to make it a priority by making it a part of your schedule.

Just like you have a specific schedule when you work or go to school, have a specific schedule when you workout. This will assure that you’ll get the work done without any potential distractions.

Say me for example, I workout everyday after school from about 4:00pm to 5:30pm. If you want it to be a lifestyle, you need to implement it into your schedule; this will make your workouts a lot easier to do.

Be Practical

You need to set your feelings aside and focus on getting it done. You don’t think about how you feel when you brush your teeth, shower, or even sleep right? This is because it is a habit, it doesn’t matter how you felt that day. You still get it done because it is part of your daily routine, you don’t think about it, you just do it and get it done.

This also leads me to feeling guilty. We aren’t perfect, and sometimes we can’t commit going to the gym at a specific time everyday or perform how we expect. Sometimes life gets in the way, and that’s OK!

The last thing you want is to extend your progress even longer, take a breath and accept the fact that you couldn’t follow through and move on! Start right back up the next day or as soon as possible. Feeling guilty and dreading the fact that you couldn’t follow through going to the gym or not performing well is not the end of the world, and it certainly shouldn’t feel like it. That applies to anything in life, not necessarily working out.

Remove all Options

Trying to find the best option in anything is the biggest progress killer you can encounter. On top of feeling overwhelmed with what option to follow, you’re preventing yourself from even getting started.

No one is perfect, and there is certainly no perfect option either. Find a plan you like and go for it, and as you go, you can change things up to your liking.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

This one sounds pretty simple to follow, but it is something all of us have fallen into. It can be pretty easy to fall into phase where you compare yourself to other people, especially fitness influencers, and begin to doubt yourself, have negative thoughts, and ultimately lose motivation.

Nowadays it’s hard to not compare yourself; with the internet keeping us more connected than ever before, you’re bound to run into this issue, but always keep in mind that almost everyone who posts themselves online tend to pick their best selves. So in other words, you might be comparing your worst to someone’s best.

No one is perfect, and certainly not those online fitness gurus either.

Staying in your own lane and focusing on your own journey will only do good to you, mentally and physically. So please, if you love and care about your well being, try not to compare yourself, and if you do, keep in mind that you might be comparing your chapter 1 to someone elses chapter 10.

Conclusion

Making goals with a why and how, scheduling your priorities, being practical, removing your options, and not comparing yourself are five solid and key principles to follow in order to be successful in your fitness journey. The more of a habit you make into following these principles, the easier things will be, but remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

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Links

The reader assumes full responsibility for consulting a qualified health professional regarding health conditions or concerns, and nutritional advice before applying the content on this site to themselves. Samuel Navarro will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this post. You are ultimately responsible for all decisions pertaining to your health.