The best motivator for 'working out' I know is simply this: showing up to your next workout is the ONLY way to realize the ways your last workout have impacted your body.
Gotta show up to reap the reward.
Let's be honest: the actual moment of "working out" is … not always comfortable . It can't be—if you're trying to prompt beneficial adaptations in the various tissues and systems of your body.
But don't get me wrong… working out most definitely can be a joyful, pleasurable, affirming, FUN activity. It can be something you LOOK FORWARD to . Yes—even for you.
That enjoyment-factor, in my experience, often comes down to finding that careful balance between challenge and effort*. But when you're close, that balance becomes fueled by Little Wins.
Little Wins are everywhere, strewn around life just waiting to be noticed, but in training they look a lot like…
Noticing a movement is easier since last time you tried it
Surprise Strength Events (such as: carry a couch like a Badass, jump over a crazy fence, paint your bedroom inaday)
Realizing certain chronic aches and pains in your body are now … absent (!!)
Grounded moments of feeling really good, by just being in your body
Now getting back to 'the best motivator I know', the reward from these Little Wins is unlocked by simply noticing them, and it's a modest amount of motivating energy to be sure. But—crucially—taken together those Little Wins quickly add up to some serious Momentum.
Pretty soon you get curious about what little improvements or progress your might notice at the next workout, and the workout-experience dial has shifted significantly toward Enjoyable. Usually, you can find a few Little Wins each and every time you work out, and most days you don't, too. That's a lot of Little Wins.
In time, Big Wins are not just possible, but inevitable…
You did that backpacking adventure you had always dreamt about
You successfully rehabbed that major knee injury
You managed to move through a major work or life stress, and come out the other side. These are the big, important wins that we sometimes experience in life.
So day by day, as you follow the path of Little Wins, you're fueling your work by setting up progress for your Future Self to enjoy. And in this process, you gradually get to know yourself better, too, simply by noticing what works and what just doesn't.
Each workout becomes much more about realizing your new-found capacities, and appreciating incremental progress, than achieving BIG goals (which happen much less often), crafting a certain body-shape, or "making up" for any sort of not-enough-ness you might feel.
Now maybe you're nodding along, and saying, "Duh Will, I know this! I already enjoy working out."
If that's you, I now want to empower you to do TWO things with your training…
Embrace those physical outlets that really light you up. Do you LOVE to be outside hiking? Or maybe you just can't get enough kayaking, pottery-making, or jiu-jistu? Whatever it is, lean in. This will further sweeten those Little Wins (cuz you already know you like to move this way!)
Use your training time to address your REAL physical weaknesses. Constant assessment and focus on the fundamentals of your physical well-being (nervous system activity, joint health, cardiovascular function, agency, social/community support) means that you will gradually move toward MORE efficiency and function, and stave off the ways our bodies inevitably come undone (entropy!). For this reason, I'm a firm believer that training time is best spent on the things that make the most LONG-TERM change; and what'd be the point of enduring the requisite discomfort?
These can be tough questions to ask/answer in the best of circumstances, but can be extra tough to crack at first. There is just so much conditioning around each of us needing to look a certain way, or live life in a certain "healthy" way, that we forget to tune into the most PURE source of body wisdom: OUR OWN BODIES.
Exploring the information your body is offering you—aka Training—is exactly the kind of structure we offer folx in our Unlimited membership.
We collaborate with you on how to A.) Set-up and truly appreciate those Little Wins, and B.) uncover and re-condition those parts of your health-picture that are impacting your physical freedom.
Sound good? Book a call with me! I'd love to help get you started on asking these questions, and grabbing those Little Wins, in your own life.
In your corner, Coach Will
*Too much/little challenge, OR too much/little effort, and things break (your body, your hormonal system, your spirit).