Festive Season Motivation

By PAUL ROBERTS, Founder of  Tribal MSP

You have set the long-term goal for 2015 and you have been working hard to reach it for a month or two. But in the last week or so, with the busyness and complications of the festive season, that goal just seems to be miles away.

As the party season starts to rev up. You feel motivation starting to slip and your body starting to tire and soon you’re wondering if it’s really even worth the effort. Why not just give up?? You have become the victim of outcome, rather than process focus.

Will you ever make the change necessary to achieve the success you crave?

Times like these can be trying and many people do unfortunately give up before they have even started. They toss in the towel, taking an extended break only to come back to try again months or even years later.

If you know some quick strategies however, you can prevent this from happening to you. Here are some fast and effective ways to boost your continuity and motivation when your long-term goal seems too far in the distance.

Change Your Focus

At times, it might seem like all you’re focusing on is attaining a certain speed or training volume.  It’s all you think about – each time you head into your workout, success or failure is determined only by increased speed or distance.

While performance improvements are definitely something to monitor and strive for, I know there have been times when my performance wasn’t what I had hoped and this outcome focus had driven me to a state of de-motivation.

The best way to overcome this?

Choose to focus on something in the present.

  1. During and after your session, consider how much better your body feels for being engaged with the training.
  2. Make a shift to a skill focus, how much more efficient can you become just by being in the moment and choosing a particular technique focal point.
  3. Take in your surroundings; during the holidays- get yourself in some beautiful surroundings- switch the treadmill for a trail, or the turbo for the open road.
  4. Re-visit a session you really love, let go of the program.
  5. Become a student- choose to learn about your key areas of potential improvement, applied knowledge is power.1459842_956140261081618_5541979041255389423_n

Remember, you are not training only for performance (at least I hope not), instead, you are establishing a foundation of health that will see your training continuity help you flourish in 2015.

Remind yourself how much you enjoy the process. It isn’t just about the outcome, but what takes place within you as well. So keep these quick tips in mind next time you’re feeling a lull in motivation and you can get back on track and on to reaching that end goal in no time.

Paul Roberts
paul@go-tribal.co.uk