Have you ever uttered these words to yourself? Most of us have for various reasons. Maybe we have a home project we have been procrastinating to start or finish. We have a test coming up we haven’t had the motivation for which to study. The pile on our desk is growing daily and we just haven’t had the energy to attack it. These are all areas in which a little motivation is useful. Without it we may allow things to stack up, get worse, or never get done.

But what about when we lack motivation to address or take care of much larger, potentially long-term issues? Like our health.

No Motivation

Well, you don’t need it. In fact, motivation may be the reason so many quickly lose weight only to regain it again. How so?

I compare motivation to adrenaline. Adrenaline is very useful for short bursts of energy. It’s used in ‘fight or flight’ scenarios. If you need to quickly get away from danger or put up a fight to protect yourself then adrenaline is what you need. It may also work well in running a very short distance. But it does little good in a marathon.

Motivation is the same way. Need to finish a short term project with a definite ending? Need to study for an upcoming test? Motivation is your friend. Need to make long-term changes in your habits in order to improve your health? Then it’s a different story all together. You see, motivation may get you started, but what will you do when it wears off? How many diets have you tried that have initially been successful but fail to offer lasting results because your motivation disappeared?

What then is the answer? Commitment. Let’s compare commitment to motivation using relationships as the model. In a relationship between two friends, family members or a spouse, how long will motivation keep the relationship alive? When things get rocky and the motivation is gone to stick it out, so is the relationship. That’s because motivation is a short-term feeling based largely on emotion. But what about commitment? Commitment is based on solid, logical, typically healthy reasons. It’s commitment that keeps a marriage or friendship alive even when the motivation to do so is lacking. And it’s commitment that keeps us working towards better health.

I think the reason so many rely on motivation to propel them forward towards goals like weight-loss is that they look at it as a short-term goal with a definite end. But it’s not! Good health and weight management has no end. It’s a lifelong pursuit that is forever changing based on our circumstances. And permanent weight-loss has more to do with small, steady changes than any single decision we make or action we take.

Healthy person on beach

What if our focus were learning, and then applying, how to live a well rounded, healthy life? The problem with this approach is that it is not exciting, sexy, marketable, or a quick way to lose weight. But if our sole approach was just being healthy, how much motivation would be needed to sustain that? Very little, I believe. We shouldn’t be looking to make drastic, overnight changes. They never stick! So my approach, while not exciting, sexy, or rapid, is to promote healthy, gradual changes. Moving a little more each day. Eating a few more fruits and vegetables and slowly weaning ourselves off of highly refined, nutritionally absent food. Eating smaller portions because we recognize we don’t need American size meals. Enjoying the small but tangible improvements to our health over months and years instead of just days and weeks.

This is not an event. This is journey. A journey that requires more commitment than motivation. Can you commit to feeling a little better than you did the day before? Then commit to making one small change a week. No motivation required.

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