Was your good intention to lose a lot of weight this year, stop smoking, exercise more or spend more time on your relationship/family, but do you notice at the end of 2020 that you have cycled through the exercise?
How is it possible that something you set out for yourself can be sustained for such a short time? How can you ensure that you increase your commitment? I will explain that to you in this blog.
What is commitment?
'I am going to lose weight now' is different from: 'I want to lose weight'. The latter is meaningless. If someone says to you: 'I want to lose weight' your reaction is probably: fine, me too, bye.
Wishes include: winning the lottery, losing 10 kilos within 3 weeks, being able to speak Chinese. Wishes are dreams, a desire without action and without a plan, in other words: hopeless! Many people wish for all kinds of things. Without commitment.
Commitment is not a want, but a need of yourself. Commitment is always context sensitive. Personal. Determined by the degree of importance. How important is it really to you?
'I'm going to lose weight now' is commitment. Because what you hear is: 'I'm going to lose weight now, BECAUSE... I'm tired of not being able to move freely anymore. I want to be an example for my children. I want to be able to go to the pool or play with them without physical and emotional problems, without being out of breath.' Personal. Context sensitive. Important!
Van Houtum (2009) describes commitment/motivation as intensity (how much importance do you attach to the objective), direction (what steps you will take to achieve this) and the influence of factors (personal and context-sensitive).
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation:
What do you think is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
Most people label intrinsic as 'something you want' and extrinsic as 'imposed from outside'. That's not entirely correct. The difference is in the process and the outcome.
Intrinsically motivated people enjoy the process of change, which we certainly emphasize at Enforce. (Enjoy and experience every positive change and use it as enforcement). Extrinsically motivated people apply changes with a view to results. This result can be either a reward or the prevention/reduction of “punishment”. (Reward: losing 10 kilos, prevention of punishment: less risk of getting diseases, etc.)
Simply put: intrinsic; you enjoy it, extrinsically: you experience it as a punishment.
Extrinsic:
• A diet;
• Mandatory gym visit;
• Working to earn money;
• Eating cake because your colleagues do it too..
Intrinsic:
• Enjoy healthy food because you want to nourish your body;
• Exercise because you experience that it makes you fitter and more powerful;
• Working to develop personally and embrace social contacts;
• Eating cake because you enjoy it and it meets your energy needs.
What do you think will work better for yourself? Intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?
Strengthen motivation
Motivation often evaporates quickly. If you have not yet achieved your goal, it is useful to continually strengthen your motivation. But how do you ensure that you maintain or even increase motivation?
These are 5 important tips:
1. Connects your purpose to your core values.
When you can connect a goal to your identity, you become your goal. I believe this is one of the most important ways to achieve your goal. By understanding and applying this, you will not only achieve your goal, but you will also experience personal development. For example: if a core value of yours is 'responsibility' and you connect 'losing weight' with 'responsibility', you will immediately make different choices. Because you have realized that being fat or slim is a choice that you are responsible for.
2. Know why!
We cannot emphasize this enough at Enforce. Behavior change is permanent when you know why you are doing it. To make the why intrinsic, it is necessary that you link an emotion to your why. Losing 10 kilos is not a why. That is also why people find it so difficult to achieve or maintain that. A goal with a number is never a why. 10 kilos, size 36, a six-pack... get that intrinsically motivated. However, there is always a why behind the number. For example: I want to lose 10 kilos because… that gives me more self-confidence. (Note: people often have a few extrinsic reasons before they get to the intrinsic ones). Knowing why means starting with the end in sight. I have a customer in the onion trade... so peel an onion... you may cry, but get to the core of why... the right emotion as a driving force.
3. How is not interesting.
People often get stuck or simply don't start, because they feel that they first need to know how to tackle something. Afraid of doing the wrong thing. Afraid of failure. However, to achieve a goal, the how is not interesting at all. Because if you have number 1 and 2 in order, you simply change your how if you notice that it is not working. Without guilt or feeling of failure. Get (SH)IT done!
4. Take action!
'If you do that thing, you get energy to do that thing.' –Emerson. Nowadays it is important to live life with a fit and strong body. This is so very true for strengthening motivation. How long have you been putting off exercising? The moment you simply DO it, you experience the energy you get from it and you want to keep doing it. Action breeds action. Because action is focus and action is results! Do it because you know why you are doing it.
5. Reflect on results and celebrate results.
Results are essential to stay motivated. I believe that results are the driving force for continuity. That's why I believe in extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. I believe in reward and process. Being aware and celebrating your results ensures that you nourish your identity and emotion.
Finally:
You can learn motivation. By applying these tips and talking to your master trainer. It's not difficult, you just have to keep feeding it.
Motivation is like taking a shower. You always have to stand under it to experience the effect. You won't get clean just by thinking about showering. You feel refreshed when you stand under it. And when you are under it, you wash away old thoughts and think about how things can be better. You soap yourself again and before you know it you are singing under that motivational shower.
Because strong motivation will help you achieve your goals. That's success!
Get coached! We are always open to reflection! But stop making excuses and start doing!
Richard Suijkerbuijk
Enforce Franchisee & Master Trainer
richard@enforce.nl
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