Where Does Your Motivation Come From?

Where Does Your Motivation Come From?
Written by Aush Chatman

When you are in a challenge, where does your motivation come from to stick to it, to see it through?

First let’s talk about what I believe motivation is…

My Aushpothesis (yeah corny) is that Motivation is tied to your identity. So anything that motivates you, is in reality something that reminds you of either A) Who you are; or, B) Who you desire to be. 

You have heard about internal and external motivation, I believe they both work on the same principle. But as it turns out internal – self-motivation – is way more powerful and sustaining than external motivation. Our minds tend to connect with ourselves on a deeper level. Sort of like the value of watching a video back of yourself perform an exercise, vs watching someone else. I guess that just makes sense, at least it fits my theory, so let’s go with it!

So then I want my main motivation to come from inside as it is related to my purpose and my WHY (my identity). I want the same for each of you too. I could send you an email every day with reminder of your goal and maybe motivational quote or exercise tip or something. But if motivation is really a reminder of who you are and who you want to be, do you need that from the outside? Can you maybe tap into that more powerful more connected SELF MOTIVATION, instead of relying on the outside world to motivate you? 

Please don’t get me wrong, external motivation is great and helpful and should happen, but it doesn’t hit the same way. A wise person will enlist the help of others to help them through a task (if available), so no doubt tons of value in the motivation from others. I believe though that should not be where we get the lion share of our motivation from.  

This is where I digress a bit and say that motivation isn’t the end all be all either. In the way I am thinking of it, it is more of a fleeting emotional thing. But it HELPS, and if you can use it, it can get you over some serious hurdles and push you through times you want to throw in the towel. What really helps though is knowing what motivation is tied to…your identity!

Figuring Out Your Identity

So that was cool, nice little Aushpothesis, but the hard work is not found in motivating yourself, the hard part is in finding out your identity, who you are. That can take a lifetime for some of us, and to be fair, we do change over time so it can be a moving target as well. Introspection is not a game most of us LIKE to play, but it is a game you can get good at.  Here are some things to consider to get you started.

How to be More Introspective

Identity ironically is usually attached to external things: God/religion, job, relationships (dangerous, I’m saying no more here…), passions, etc. Think about how these things shape who you are. (Take notes)

Ask people who know you best to describe who you are, how you are.  (Take notes)

You have heard it said, “You are the 5 people you hang out with the most.”  So who are those people, how would you characterize/define them? (Write it down)

Consider your past.

What do you hope for in the future?

Above all remember that identity is a hard thing to nail down, some people come up with Identity Statements, but it doesn’t have to be that concrete, you just need to have that fluffy, barely penciled in outline. And like most things defining what you are is almost always made clearer by defining what you ARE NOT.

For us in the challenge, let’s start around ideas about fitness, why do you want to lose weight, why do you want to be stronger, why do you not want to be “Soft”??? Why, Why, Why??

That was a lot, now what?

Ok, not done, hang in there.

I want to say one more thing, actually a hypothetical.

Let’s say you started a challenge and you went strong for 8 days, didn’t miss a workout, nailed the nutrition, read your book…killing the game. Then day 9, you messed up on nutrition and the book…then by day 12 you had missed 2 workouts and messed up on your diet again.  Fast Forward to today, Day 27 (Already!) and you haven’t really done the challenge for 18 Days. 

So what now?  

Here is the cool thing about answering questions about WHY, finding your purpose, and starting to delve into who you are and who you want to be; Completing this challenge, the 42 days perfectly, WAS NOT THE POINT…it was NEVER the point. The point was whatever your goals were, your WHY.  

So check this out.  

If you wanted to not be soft like me, failing and then getting back up and restarting, is EXACTLY the behavior of a NOT SOFT person! You know the kind of person who “loses the weight”? It is the person who doesn’t quit because they “messed up” for 12 days in a row.  

Folks this is daily mercy, daily grace, it is awesome. Today is a new day, or tomorrow will be even if today wasn’t different for you.  o just get back on it, don’t allow the past to dictate your future, just let it inform your present. Think about WHO YOU ARE, and then get back after it. Put your x in our tracker with no shame even if you have a bunch of blank spots.

Who are you? Onward in Fitness!

Need help figuring some of this out? Download our FREE Goal Setting Workbook to get you started!