Feelings During Exercise, Part Three: Discipline and Motivation

The term “motivation” is often correlated with the urge to exercise (or lack thereof). Let’s rephrase.

Good Morning!

I’m back on time again, hopefully in your inbox before logging into work this morning. This marks installment number three of Feelings During Exercise, my series on what happens in your head and body on your fitness journey.

These installments will continue periodically if not consecutively from here.

In this installment, we’ll discuss the difference between motivation, a term often paired with “to workout,” and discipline.

Both are necessary components of progress in your health and wellness journey. But, at the risk of making today’s newsletter an english lesson, we have to remember the definitions of each word before we begin to use them to assign blame to ourselves about why work isn’t getting done.

As a reminder, I’m your de-facto health coach. I want to see you succeed whether or not we ever perform a training session together.

It’s important not to self-sabotage and assign the incorrect meaning to words that we use for mindset around health (my graduate school writing coach is somewhere smiling).

Discipline and Motivation

Discipline is the backbone of consistency. It involves setting clear goals, establishing routines, and developing a strong work ethic.

When it comes to exercise, disciplined individuals prioritize their workouts, even when they don't feel like it.

These people understand the long-term benefits of staying committed to their fitness regimen. Studies have shown that disciplined individuals have higher levels of self-control, enabling them to resist temptations that may hinder their progress

Motivation is the driving force that fuels our desire to take action. It is the excitement, inspiration, or sense of purpose that propels us forward.

Discipline provides structure, motivation provides the spark for the structure.

But motivation is always in flux, and when motivation becomes too ingrained as our “why” for exercise, we blame the lack of it.

Think of your last health deadline.

Wedding photos. Your doctor’s recommendation to lift before your next physical. A bad injury.

All of these things likely motivated you to move, but what happened after that deadline passed?

If exercise isn’t habituated and eventually appreciated as a form of self care, motivation will vanish.

You only thought to exercise as part of a personal milestone you wanted to achieve, and now your willingness to go to the gym on a whim has diminished.

Bridging The Gap Between Discipline And Motivation

Research suggests that developing a growth mindset can make a significant difference in how you approach exercise and develop discipline.

A growth mindset means playing the long game with your fitness, and trusting that the happiest version of yourself can be developed through effort and persistence.

By adopting a growth mindset, you evolve out of the vicious cycle of training for one singular short-term goal, and learn to enjoy the little things while chasing longevity.

It’s much like looking at the stars in a non-light-polluted area and contemplating how large our solar system is, or reaching the summit of a climb and looking down at how small everything beneath you is.

Both perspectives give you a sense of how humbling life is, and how short-sighted goal setting can, at times, be a farce.