More on motivation

Most people think that to get fit, or to eat healthy, they've got to have motivation and self-discipline. Don't get me wrong, motivation is great and self-discipline is a powerful thing, but these aren't qualities we all just "have". We may have them for a short period of time, but eventually real life patterns and habits push against the grain and we lose energy to maintain the motivation and the self-discipline. Last week I wrote about "Structures and Systems" as a tool for maintaining new behaviors and resolutions. Today I want to talk about the impact of "pre-loading" or imagery.

We all know that when we make a resolution (whatever time of year that may be), there will be obstacles that will arise that make it difficult for us to continue. These obstacles are often what wind up killing off our "motivation/self-discipline" and derail our new resolution/habit by the second week of January. Pre-loading is a way of using imagery to pre-decide what actions we will take when faced with a predictable obstacle. Let's suppose your goal is to not eat after 7:00 pm, but you like to spend Friday night with friends and this is often where overeating low-nutrient and high calorie foods takes place. When you pre-load, you imagine what you might say and do when you are out with your friends at 9:00 Friday night. This may mean you prepare the response of "No thanks" when someone offers you a calorie laden drink, or you request a soda water instead. Picture this, practice saying it aloud. Or perhaps your goal is to workout Monday/Wednesday and Friday between 5-6 am, but you know that you sometimes find it hard to get out of bed in the mornings. Use imagery to "see"yourself getting up, getting dressed and heading out the door. Imagine yourself driving to the gym (heading out for the run, swinging some kettlebells in your basement etc), how you will feel when you start, what you might say to anyone you meet, and how you will feel afterwards. Give this some time and let your imagination really get into creating the image - include sights/sounds/feelings/sensations, even smells. Make it real. Evidence shows that imagining yourself in these situations, doing the behavior you desire, really does increase the likelihood of the behavior. Give it a go and let me know how it works for you!