The early days of a fitness journey are often filled with fiery motivation. But as your journey continues on and the “newness” of your healthy routine wears off a bit, you might find that your motivation follows suit. If you’ve hit that motivation plateau, it’s time to re-motivate yourself to achieve your goals!

What are your goals right now?

What are you working towards?

What’s holding you back from reaching your goals?

If you started the year off with some big goals in mind but you find yourself a little less than motivated right now, there’s a reason for that.

The first things that might come to mind are external factors: no time, no energy, no support, too stressful. And while these obstacles can feel like massive challenges, you can over-come them. The real issue is: how do you stay motivated? How/where can you make adjustments to rekindle that fire and feel that Super Woman drive again?

Here are my top 12 tips to get re-motivated and achieve your fitness goals!

(p.s. if you’re feeling like life is constantly getting in your way – the stress, the deadlines, the commitments…I highly encourage you to sign up for No Excuses – a free, 7-day video series that hits on all of the biggest challenges and obstacles that feel too big too take on alone).

12 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Achieve Your Goals

Motivation is about finding reasons to keep going despite the challenges. There are non-negotiable pieces to that puzzle: a sense of control, a sense of ability, and a sense of deep reason. In other words, highly motivated people feel like they are in control of their actions and future, that they have the power and means to do what it takes, and that they have a deep sense of why.

Motivation is essential. You’re not always going to have someone leading the way. There will always be obstacles and challenges. Motivation is what makes you unstoppable regardless of external realities.

Highly motivated people feel like they are in control of their actions and future, that they have the power and means to do what it takes, and that they have a deep sense of why.

In other words, if you want to achieve your goals, you have to believe that it’s within your power to get it done.

1: Take Ownership

This is your body. These are your goals. Ultimately, this is your responsibility.

When you look at it this way you start to realize that your actions have consequences. And that because you have power over those actions, you have power over the consequences.

Taking ownership of your goals means taking the reins:

• Think through your nutrition choices before you sit down at the table. Make conscious decisions about what you want to put in your body and why. Food doesn’t have power. You have power…to say yes, no, maybe later, or enough for now.
  
• Build reasons to trust yourself. Do some research. Not sure about strength training? Look into it, read some blogs, ask some questions so that you can confidently decide what’s in it for you.
  
• Stop planning. Stop thinking about it. Start taking action. Do the little things (like having a glass of water before coffee) and do the big things (like going to the gym 5 days a week). Just. Do. It.

2: Get Clear on Your Why

If you’ve ever faced and overcome a significant crisis or event in your life, you’ve experienced the power of why. Your why brings everything else into sharp focus. It is what propels you to dig deep, pull from the reserves when your energy is tapped and push forward until you’ve completed the mission.

There is nothing more motivating then having a clear, fiery idea of what your why is.

Surface-level goals are enough to get motivated, but they are rarely enough to stay motivated. It’s not that they aren’t valid – they are! But it’s the deeper, more emotional stuff behind that surface-level goal that carries you through the tough times and leads the way no matter what the day brings.

For example I have a client who wants to lose weight. That’s been her goal her a number of years because despite really wanting to lose the weight, that desire wasn’t enough to push her to the gym or grocery store when the day got rough. So we dug in – I asked her why until she got a bit emotional (that’s where the fire lies!). And she realized that what she really want was to feel like herself again. She wanted to feel like she had energy, and confidence, and purpose. I could see the light in her eyes when she talked about her why. It changed everything.

3: Re-Evaluate Your Plan

Results are without a doubt, highly motivating. When you see/feel/notice the results of your hard work, you’re far more likely to do the hard work! So if you’re plan isn’t getting you the results you want, it’s time to re-evaluate.

Finding/creating a plan that draws a clear line from where you are today to where you want to be is a guaranteed way to motivate yourself to achieve your goals. Here’s how to do it:

1. Decide: what’s your goal? What are the results you WANT to achieve?
2. Work backwards from that goal. What steps do you need to take in order to reach your goal? What changes do you have to make in order to take those steps?
3. Commit to taking action. Working backwards should help you visualize exactly what achieving your goals is going to take. Commit to doing the work. Plan out your month, your week, your day so that when you do go to the gym, or choose the healthier option at lunch, or take the intimidating yoga class, you know where it fits into the plan.

When your actions consistently align with your goals, the results will come.

Not sure you want to/know how to come up with that plan? I can help. Find a time here that works for you and let’s talk about how together, we can achieve your goals.

4: Expand Your Idea of Progress and Success

Success is not just a number. Progress is not just a weight on the scale. There are so many more relevant, more life-changing ways to measure progress and success – you just have to let yourself believe in them.

There are countless ways to measure success. If you’re ignoring these non-scale victories, your shorting yourself some real opportunity for celebration and motivation. Here are some non-scale victories that will expand your idea of how successful you actually are:

• consistency
• ability to stay injury free
• improved form and technique
• increased energy
• improved sleep
• improved sex drive
• your clothes fit better
• you’re able to move without restriction

These are massive wins that are often overlooked in favor of obsessing over the number on the scale. Let go of the scale. It’s not telling you anything useful. Looks to these key, quality of life factors instead.

5: Re-Write Your Mental Script

“Yourself” is a gut-level sense of who you are. It bubbles away mostly subconsciously. It’s a long list of stories you tell yourself about, well, yourself – who you are, why you make the choices you do, and how much power you have over those choices.

In the end, those beliefs determine your potential for growth.

We sometimes let our stories limit us – 

“I’ve never been able to stick to a diet. Why try now?”
“Bodybuilding is a young person’s sport…I’ll just watch from the side lines.”
“I can’t workout because I have to go straight home to my family and cook dinner…they wouldn’t be able to figure it out without me.”

These are stories. Stories can be rewritten.

Rewrite your story so that it supports your goals and who you want to be. Start living the way that version of You would live, and you quickly start to become her.

True story.

6: Clarify Your Biggest Obstacles – and How to Overcome Them

Choosing to face your challenges and learning how to overcome them will help you stay on track, fired up and centered.

The first step is recognizing (actually putting a name to), the obstacle. Stress at work. Lack of time. You don’t want to give up your social life.

Next, separate yourself from the obstacle. Give it a name.

When I was struggling with anorexia, my therapist had me start referring to it as ED (eating disorder) so that I could start to distinguish the difference between me, Julia the person, and my illness. This simple technique changed my trajectory.

Finally, pretend someone else was dealing with this particular obstacle. What would you tell them? What advice would you give them? How would you pump them up? Use those same words and encouragements with yourself!

7: Celebrate the Small Wins

Don’t hold off on celebrating your successes. Find reasons to celebrate the smaller wins every single day. Creating mini-goals that not only keep you on track, but give you something to feel really good about accomplishing. These kinds of progress points come in all shapes and sizes:

• If your goal is to lose 50 pounds and you’ve lost the first 10, that’s a huge milestone!
• When you’ve consistently hit 8k steps for a few weeks in a row, you’re doing something worth appreciating.
• The nights that you cook a healthy meal despite the long day, the messy kitchen and the hectic home, give yourself some kudos!

Take advantage of the smaller opportunities to celebrate your success because the reality is: fitness goals are lifetime goals. Celebrate now!

8: Don’t Leave Anything to Chance

Planning for success is a great motivator and it helps you make the most out of your day. Once you know what you want, why you want it, and what steps you need to take to achieve it…don’t leave anything to chance.

If you know that you need to change your eating habits: create a meal plan, throw out the junk food, go to the grocery store, meal prep. Don’t leave it to chance and hope that something healthy falls in your lap tomorrow.

9: Quit the Idea of Perfection

There is nothing wrong with setting your goals high and expecting big things from yourself. But perfection is a subjective, malleable and ever-changing thing and aiming for it can be detrimental to your motivation (never mind your quality of life).

Instead of aiming to be perfect (follow the diet perfectly, adhere to the workout program without an error), aim for better. Achieve your goals by being better every day. Choosing the better option. Making the best of every opportunity. Ensuring that this time is better than the last time.

10: Visualize Success

You know the kids’ shows from childhood when the main character visualizes herself crossing the finish line, or winning the talent show? Maybe it’s a little over the top but the fact is, visualizing yourself being successful at what you want has power.

If you can see yourself having achieved your goal…
See yourself as strong, fit and confident…

Then it becomes easier for you to believe that you CAN achieve your goals.

Visualize success. Not just what it looks like but what it feels like, sounds like, tastes like. How will you be different? How will life be different?

Create that world – make it realistic – and you’ll find that your motivation expands as your vision does.

11: Create an Environment that Supports Your Success

Easy. Simple. Straightforward.

Three words that we’d all LOVE to use when talking about our fitness journey.

And while every day can’t be simple and easy, you can take action to create and environment that supports your success and makes some of your days, and some of your choices, exactly that. Here are some ideas to get started:

• Kitchen Makeover – get rid of the junk food that you don’t want to eat. Replace those items with healthier choices so that eating healthier is not only obvious and easier, it’s almost the only choice!
• Pack your gym bag with everything you need for a great workout. Invest in good shoes and cute workout gear. Download your favorite playlists and never, ever forget your hair tie. Bonus points if you do it the night before!
• Ask for help. The people that you surround yourself with are part of your environment. Ask for their support. Ask your girlfriends to start going for walks together instead of drinks. Ask your husband to distract the kids for 30 minutes so you can do a workout. Ask your child if they want to go for a hike with you, or cook something healthy together. Make it so!
  
  

12: Take a Planned Break

If nothing else helps you feel motivated, it might be time to take a little break. If you’ve been on and off diets your whole life, if you’ve been bouncing from workout plan to bootcamp to spin class for years, it’s possible that you’re just burnt out and need a break. Take one. Give yourself a week or two of planned physical and emotional rest.

You want to achieve your goals. So this tip might sound a little counter-intuitive. Hear me out.

I’ve been the girl that is always thinking about her “rules of reaching the top”. Move more. Protein at every meal. Hit your macros. Lift more. Do the HIIT workout. It’s exhausting! And it can sap the motivation right out of you. A planned, pre-approved break (even a rest day!) can do wonders for both your brain and your body.

You should still move. You should still treat your body well. But close the rule book for a minute and just breathe into life. You might actually find that your body responds well to that.