Fresh Start Fever – Lacking Motivation to Get Fit and Eat Well? Read This
Why is it so difficult to sustain behavior change? Why do we fall short of our weight management and fitness goals so often? Motivation is a hot topic in the health world and here we take a look at the importance of tapping into the correct motivational sources to increase your chances of success.
I have lost count of the number of clients who have asked me if I’ve been inundated with fresh personal training enquiries recently. This is not surprising as the New Year is notorious with ‘Fresh Start Fever’. Unfortunately though, many people will have already quit their quest to get fit and healthy in favour of their old habits. Three weeks in and many more people will be struggling to maintain the fervor that accompanied the start of their new fitness and / or dietary regime.
Failing to set appropriate goals and unrealistic diet and training expectations are often reasons used to explain falling ‘off the wagon’. Fascinated by what stimulates consistent behavior change, it has become increasingly apparent to me that our unconscious brain and emotions are the real powerhouses driving our behavior. With a processing capacity that quite literally dwarfs our conscious brain it is little surprise that our behavior is largely determined by factors that we are not even aware of.
In his 2009 best selling book ‘The Talent Code’, Daniel Coyle points to a couple of important factors that may help to explain the high drop off rates from January’s Fresh Start Fever. Exploring what makes some people exceptionally talented and elite performers in the worlds of sport, music, math, chess and many other domains, Coyle discusses the issue of ‘ignition’. The moment that an individual begins their journey to world-class performance is often an unconscious decision, one that takes place deep below our active thought. Many experts can’t even pinpoint a moment that they opted to become a top performer or dedicate hour upon hour in pursuit of their dreams – they just do it – it’s become a habit. Delving deeper, Coyle met with several leading behavioural psychologists who point to the fact human beings are very sociable creatures – we like to be able to identify with others. This manifests itself in statements such as ‘I want to be like them’ or ‘I need to look like him’ and ‘If I can achieve that then I will be the person that I want to be’. Individuals whose goals originate from the unconscious possess a powerful motivator as they are often related to emotions that we feel and our perceptions of how we view ourselves within our environment’. Such a powerful driving force results in our ability to devote a lot of our resources to achieving a goal. Conservative by nature, if a health and fitness goal doesn’t originate from deep within then no amount of ‘willing the body on’ will get it to unleash its full backing to the cause.
Coyle also noticed that the vast majority of talent hotbeds around the world shared one thing in common regardless of the type of expertise being developed – they were all sparse, basic and non-luxurious environments. The explanation being that the unconscious mind is a conservative beast – surround an individual with luxury early on and it reduces the drive to succeed.
In summary, when you set out to achieve a healthier lifestyle and get fit, it is important to select goals that are genuinely important to you, and evoke an emotional response of some kind. If you can do this then you’re much more likely to devote all of the resources at your disposal to the cause. Furthermore, don’t allow yourself to be too comfortable – after all, nothing worthwhile achieving is ever easy.
NK Fitness is a small personal training and strength & conditioning company with clients throughout Fulham, Central and South South West London. We pride ourselves on providing expert advice and support to a wide range of loyal customers. If you would like further information then please visit our contact page.
This article was written by personal fitness trainer Nathan Kelly – find on Google+
