Motivation is for SUCKERS

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Motivation is for fools. Motivation is for wieners. Don’t trust your motivation.

People far more eloquent and well-known than me - admittedly a rather low bar in both cases - have said some version of this sentiment, but if you’ve never seen or heard it, it’s important that you do so today: Motivation is for suckers.

We are all fools and suckers at various times in our lives - I’ve certainly been both of those on more occasions than I care to admit - but when it comes to training, you’ve got to know that you do not trust motivation.

Instead, trust habit. Trust discipline. Trust delayed gratification. These are all various ways of saying essentially the same thing. Go in and simply punch the clock on a regular basis.

99% of the time, training is exactly that - going in and punching the clock. Sure, you’ll have days where you’re jazzed up to train, but you’re going to have a ton of days where you don’t particularly want to train, and this is especially true the longer you’ve trained. PRs get harder to come by over time - after all, the stronger you get, the harder it is to get even stronger.

Punch the clock anyway. You have permission from me - for all that matters - to not want to train . . . and still go and train anyway. All those workouts where you’re excited to get in the gym and train? In the long run, those aren’t the difference makers - those aren’t the ones where you make the most progress. But the workouts where you didn’t feel like going to the gym and went anyway? Those are your moneymakers. You keep stringing those days together, and over time, that’s how you make progress. Being consistent. Punching the clock.

Are you stoked to brush your teeth? Probably not, but you do it anyway. On the days that you’re not motivated to get to the gym, treat your training the same way.

It’s ok to not be motivated and still train. Training isn’t life, but it makes the quality of the rest of your life better. Get to work. Punch that clock.

Get stronger. Live better.

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