When starting your fitness journey, it is totally normal to feel empowered by motivation. The overwhelming desire to get shit done is a great feeling and you should welcome the surge. The fire of motivation burns hot and fast like wildfire in the Sahara Desert. When you have the motivation, be sure to use it! Just remember that motivation is fleeting and before long, the tables will turn. Once your motivation gas tank is empty, you will need to find a different fuel source. This fuel source is called discipline. The fire of discipline is slow burning and long lasting, but can be difficult to keep lit. Every time life throws an obstacle in your path, your discipline is stressed. Discipline is like the muscles in your body, it can grow stronger when put under the proper stress, but not enough stress will cause the discipline to die off. With no discipline, there is no long-term success.
Think of your fitness journey as a campfire that brings health, energy, happiness, and glory. The only rule is that you cannot allow the fire to burn out. You must venture out into the forest and collect anything and everything you can use as fuel for your fitness fire. The fuel of discipline can be found in abundance, but it does take a small amount of work to collect. Think of discipline as fallen tree branches that can easily be purposed into fuel. To find this fuel, you mostly need to hold yourself accountable and keep a high level of self-awareness. If you can put in the work, you will build a hefty stack of discipline which will keep the fire burning for years to come.
The fast-burning explosive called motivation is a completely different fuel source. This one is incredibly hard to find and if you are not careful, your fitness fire will burn out when you are out in the woods chasing motivation. Motivation is like a pile of dead leaves, you can only find them during a small window and once you use them up, they are gone. When the fire burns low, a pile of dead leaves will work great to get that beast roaring again. Once the flames are steady, you can start tapping into that hefty pile of discipline fuel.
Looking at fitness as an activity fueled by motivation and convenience is the wrong approach. Your health and progress will be a direct reflection of your campfire. The motivation fueled fire will repeatedly burn out while you are out galivanting in the woods. You will eventually realize that restarting fires is much more difficult than keeping one burning.
To really enjoy the benefits of fitness, you should be working at it your entire life. You should absolutely use motivation to make your fire burn hot and strong but acknowledge that discipline is mostly responsible for keeping the fire lit.
Do not try to exercise every day for a month, without resting, chasing false hopes of a challenge. Try exercising three days every week for the next 50 years...and see what you can accomplish!
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