Motivation: Do You Feel It or Do You Live It?

Remember the gym?

HA! Me too.

We’re almost halfway through the year—how’s your health looking?

Ope. Did the tension tick up a bit? No? Just me then.

Let’s talk about it.

If you’re anything like me, sticking with the gym consistently can be a struggle. It’s not just the workouts—it’s everything else. You need a plan: lifts, cardio, reps (to failure? what does that even mean?). And oh yeah, you actually have to go there.

Gross. I go places all the time. Now I have to go to the gym too?

So what happens when you don’t feel like going?

That’s when we start relying on our great old friend: Motivation.

Gross again.

But seriously—what is motivation?

Let me grab my dictionary real quick:

Motivation – the act or process of motivating… awesome, thanks. Super helpful.
Motivating – to provide with a motive… okay, hold on, isn’t that cheating?
Motive – something such as a need or desire that causes a person to act.

BINGO. That’s something I can work with.

So when I wake up so early I don’t know what day it is, what I really need… is a reason. A need or desire that drives me to move.

But let me ask you something:

Is motivation a feeling… or is it a result?

Or…

What do I do when I just don’t feel like it?

Ever asked yourself that?

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Motivation doesn’t show up first. Action does.

If I wait around to feel motivated, I’m gonna be waiting a long time. But when I do the thing—when I go to the gym, when I open the laptop, when I hit publish—that’s when motivation shows up. Not before.

So how do we do the thing when we don’t feel like it?

You make it easier to start.

Remove friction from the thing you want to do. Add friction to the thing you don’t.

Lay your gym clothes out the night before. Put your journal next to your toothbrush. Log out of social media on your computer if you’re trying to focus. Whatever it is, make the path of least resistance lead to the thing that actually moves you forward.

Because most days, we don’t need a full life overhaul. We just need one tiny win.

And here’s the truth—you won’t remember that you didn’t feel like doing it.
You’ll just remember that you did.

And that’s the difference.

Who’s with me?