a simple trick to keep motivation in sports and in general

These days, I manage to do a lot of stuff, to launch and continue projects, whether on a personal or professional level. If I manage to stay motivated, it's because I know more than ever that motivation is a very fragile resource and one that can wear out very quickly. It must therefore be taken care of.

For that, there are techniques to motivate yourself and stay that way.

There is another technique that I have not explained so far. This is a “trick” that I use these days, especially to keep motivation in sports, and it works quite well.

By wanting to do too much, we end up doing nothing

When you are motivated to do something, most of the time, how does it go? You throw yourself headlong, without restraint, into the task. Until more thirsty.

It's like that when you start, you're super motivated, and you want to take advantage of it. So we are going "to the end" of this motivation.

And here is the trap. When we are excited by the idea of ​​doing something, we tend to overdo it. And that's what ends up boring us.

For example, people who want to run will, overnight, start running for an hour every morning. When they never ran before.

A person who wants to learn an instrument will play three hours a day for several days in a row.

You also surely know those people who want to go on a diet, and who suddenly go from Greek/Macedo/beer to soup/vegetables/water.

The problem with that is that on the one hand, the change is too drastic, and on the other hand, you inevitably end up getting bored. By wanting to do too much, we exhaust our initial motivation.

Going hungry on purpose

How to solve this problem?

Simply by avoiding overdoing it.

A flame that burns twice as intensely also lasts half as long.

This proverb perfectly illustrates the problem of which I have just spoken. It's fine to start running for an hour every day for 2 weeks, but if it's to stop as quickly as it happened, it was not worth getting tired.

Instead, set limits for yourself. Force yourself to stop an activity before you get tired of it.

For example, limit the time you spend on an activity. Rather than doing 2 hours of sport per day for two weeks and stopping, it's much better to do just 30 minutes, but 2 or 3 times a week for years.

There are two positive effects to this.

The first is that it makes you go gradually. And that's how the changes last.

Then, by voluntarily limiting yourself, you avoid fatigue. By voluntarily leaving yourself "unsatisfied", by stopping a little earlier when you still want to continue, you keep this excitement at the start, this desire to do things that make you continue over time. We avoid becoming jaded and we want to start again next time.

A small example to finish

I said it in the introduction, it's something that I'm applying for right now.

I went back to bodybuilding. Before, I was more of a fierce type. I sometimes stayed 1h30 in the room, and I went to the end of my strength. I was exhausted. Because I said to myself “you have to give everything”, “you have to go all out”, etc…

Except that, the following days, when you're a little lazy, you think about the style of the session and it makes you want to go even less.

Instead, now I don't push as much. I do not impose too intensive a rhythm on myself, I always make sure that it remains fun. Sometimes I even stop a little earlier, when I still want to continue.

This means that the following days when I have to go to do my sport, I say to myself:

that anyway, it's going to be fun,

and that the last time I didn't do everything I wanted to do.

As a result, I'm super motivated to go back.