Let's Talk About Motivation

Why are we coming to class? The foundation of any behavior is motivation. There are almost as many reasons for wanting to get more active as there are others trying to do it. Although motivation varies from person to person, some motives will help us keep up our effort and others will not.

Motives that keep us on track stem from a desire to improve life in some way. We may not want to be healthier, look better, feel younger, wear smaller clothes and have more energy. All of these outcomes concern the desire for self-improvement. In fact, all legitimate motivation boils down to one concept. We care enough about ourselves to make positive changes!

Motivation that is not effective involves taking action to please other people, such as trying to impress our family and make our friends like us more is not likely to succeed in the long run unless it is accompanied by a deep belief that we want these changes for ourselves.

Getting healthier and more functionally fit merely to please others rarely works because they might not react the way we think they will once we have greatly improved our health. Even if our progress produces a positive response in others, in the end we may resent basing our goals on the need to please other people (even if we are responsible for this need).

We are motivated to change our behavior because we want to avoid unpleasant negative consequences. We notice that it is harder to get some of our chores and our favorite activities taking care of in a reasonable amount of time compared to what it used to take.

Most common problem of motivation is, “I don’t want to think about that!” We can probably relate to the fact that discomfort motivates change. We walk across the mall parking lot with our friends and find ourselves hopelessly out of breath, huffing and puffing just to keep up. Moments of such extreme discomfort are likely to help motivate us to do something to improve our health and fitness level.

The problem is that they are just that, moments of discomfort, and chances are that once the moment has passed, we are no longer uncomfortable. The motivation has slipped through our hands. However, if we don’t focus on the discomfort, we will not be in touch with our needed motivation!

For more information, call the Lewis County Senior Health and Fitness at 796-5564.