Resolution Time
We have a meeting every week at the gym where we chat as a staff about a topic that may help us be better coaches/practitioners.
This week, we spent some time watching Mike Israetel’s The Five Constructs of the Motivation Process, which got me thinking about what makes certain people successful with their training adherence while others are left struggling to find the semblance of a routine. It was timely as it’s a time of year where folks are starting (or restarting) at the gym. Why do some stick with it while others don’t?
He ended up talking about six constructs, which are as follows...
Inspiration
Motivation
Intention
Discipline
Habit
Passion
None of these words are inherently new to me but what really got me thinking was how do we drive these to occur? How do these different elements work together?
I tend to take both inspiration and motivation for granted. Why wouldn’t we be motivated or inspired? We only have a short time in life to make it the best experience for us and those around us. Why waste it waiting to be motivated?
INSPIRATION
Still, Israetel made some good points on inspiration and motivation. Inspiration tends to be intense, but short-lived. I remember when I decided to race an IRONMAN, I was ready and willing to do anything. I saw what IRONMAN athletes looked like and were able to accomplish and I wanted that for myself. If you told me to run through a brick wall, I was at least going to try.
Fast forward to the end of my first week of training. Tired, drained and frustrated with where I was at, it was going to take a stick of dynamite underneath me to make me want to move. Inspiration was leaving me fast.
To me, this is where vision boards, or sticky notes on the mirror have their place. By giving ourselves little shots of inspiration, we can keep the fire burning during tough times. I’m a competitive person which helps me respond well to Jocko Willink-style motivational words. During my IRONMAN training I had a few audiobooks and inspiring speeches that I would listen to while training to help me move forward on tough days.
MOTIVATION
Motivation has its ebbs and flows as well, with lower highs and higher lows. This makes motivation a more consistent driver of “sticking to it” but leaves a lot to be desired. If a particularly difficult task happens to fall in line with a period of lower motivation, good luck, might as well take a rain check and try again tomorrow.
I remember certain training weeks where I had success, my motivation tended to respond positively. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishing longer rides, runs or swims and felt badass in doing so. The weeks where the training humbled me led me to periods of low motivation. If I still couldn’t run a few miles in a row at a decent pace, how was I going to do an IRONMAN? Might as well quit.
I’ve found people to motivate me. When I was struggling to be motivated, I would tell people what I was going to do. My friends and family members kept me motivated simply because I don’t like disappointing people. While it’s a tough thing to rely on, the right people around can make a world of difference with motivation.
INTENTION
This leads us to intention. Intention is the plan that we fall back on. During periods of low motivation, it is imperative that we have something to look at, understand and pursue. When I didn’t want to train, all I had to do was look at my training calendar. Race day wasn’t going to move, so my training had to happen on schedule, otherwise I would fail.
DISCIPLINE
From intention, we get discipline, which is executing upon that plan. It’s the difference between being fine with failure and understanding that there is a path to success if we’re willing to take it. I could look at my training calendar all I wanted, but it was going to take discipline to put the swimsuit on or lace up the shoes to run. Without it, failure was imminent.
The trouble with relying on discipline is that it is a finite resource. If I looked at my training calendar and knew I had to do it, I could battle through a few training sessions before I started really looking for a way out. By relying on discipline, I was constantly doing something that I wasn’t gung-ho on doing. Any training program that I’ve been around that relies solely on discipline fails eventually. It is inevitable and we are human.
HABIT
From discipline comes habit. By battling through tough training days, I realized that my training limits were different from what I had previously thought. What was termed “difficult” was now viewed as “routine”. When difficult efforts become habitual, we can take a break from relying on discipline. We’re not going out of our way to do something we don’t like to do, we are simply doing what we always do. In training, habit formation is the white whale of success. Find it and results will come.
I’m an upholder personality. If things are assigned or written down to do, I will do it. For me, forming habits is the result of checking off boxes. For those with other personalities, this technique does not work. For the scope of this article however, if you want to form a habit, track it.
PASSION
From habits come passions. The success of completing an IRONMAN led me to love health and fitness. It made me realize what a human body is capable of and it made me passionate about finding the best ways to help others find success as well. The old saying “pursue your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life” holds true here.
This doesn’t mean that all we do in successful training programs is pursue people’s passion. There are some things that we need to rely on motivation, discipline or habit formation to ensure completion but if we can find passion in certain areas, it can take an athlete’s training program to the next level.
There you have it, the six constructs of training adherence. Thanks to Sam Orfanidis for finding that video! It was a good one. It also provided Sam with a few CEU’s so if you’re a member of the NSCA reading this, just know that Sam does not need to be audited for his recertification. He served his time!