Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: How to Motivate Yourself to Keep Working Out

Episode Date: March 4, 2019

This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: Every Monday morning, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’s one thing to know what you want to do, but it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, this is Mike from Muscle for Life and welcome to another episode of my podcast. This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed Motivation Monday. Yes, I know. So creative of me. What can I say? I'm just a genius. Seriously though, the idea here is simple. What can I say? I'm just a genius. Seriously though, the idea here is simple. Every Monday morning, I am going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle

the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. Because it's one thing to know what you want to do, but it's something else altogether to actually make yourself do it. And I hope that this series gives you a jolt of energy and encouragement to go ahead and do all of those things that you want to do. So if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. This is where I would normally plug a sponsor to pay the bills, but I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm just going to quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my newest book, the little black book of workout motivation. Now, this book was fun to write because it really is my personal and 100%

practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. And I promise you that it will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things you care most about. So if you want to learn how to overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the little black book of workout motivation is for you. And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. And I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible

account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audiobook for free, simply go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audiobook. Click the sign up today and save button, create your account, and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. Hey, Mike Matthews here from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics, and welcome to another Motivational Monday episode of my podcast. And as always, let us begin with a quote. This one comes from Albert Hubbard, and he said,

men are punished by their sins, not for them. Maybe not the most motivational quote, but I liked it, so I'm sharing it. So today's discussion is just going to be about workout motivation in general, because it's a tough nut to crack. I take a shirtless picture, I post it on Instagram, I get immediate feedback. I get some likes, I get some lulls, I get some digital high fives, maybe a troll or two, but it's dopamine on demand. I poke the button and I get the testicular tickle. Building a great body, however, is nothing like that. Building a great body is spitting into a bucket every day and nobody really cares until it's almost full, including you. You're just there like, trust me, this spit bucket is going to

shine one day. And then you hawk another loogie into it. You just wait. My point is, it is completely self-driven. You want to know what it feels like? It feels like this. You bust your ass through a workout. You look in the mirror and you whisper to yourself, was that any good? And you whisper to yourself, was that any good? Then you reply, also uttering, I have no fucking idea. Oh, okay. Well, should I keep doing it? I really don't know.

Please stop talking to me. Okay. Okay. Then you try to use your quick drying, anti-stink, strategically vented workout shirt to soak up your tears, but it is water resistant, so it is not even good for that. So how do you do it? How do you motivate yourself every day to drag your draggy body up to the barbell and muscle fuck it until a physique is born? Day after day, one month, one year, one decade, if that's what it takes. Here then are some practical thoughts of mine on finding the motivation to build your best body ever one sweat brick at a time.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. Train first. Seriously, do it now. Stop leering at me and go train. You see, here's something that I have learned over the

years. It doesn't play nicely with everyone's schedule, but getting up early to pound out a workout helps keep it high on the list of things not to fuck up. You see, we only get so many drops of energy every day and life always finds a way to siphon them out of our skulls in unexpected ways, like tailgaters, noisy eaters, and group text messages. Lavish these drops early on your training, however, and you never have to worry about losing the motivation to do it later. Next tip is to find your way. Sometimes to get things done, you have to stick square pegs into circle holes, which is also the opening of my sexual tell-all, but whatever. Point is, trying to eat and exercise the exact same way that somebody else eats and exercises can itself be demotivating. But

eating and exercising the way that you eat and exercise feels like a well-oiled machine. Also, well-oiled machine is the name of said salacious story. Trust me, it is going to be money. Point is, create a system that works for you. Get into the groove of eating foods you like and doing workouts. You actually look forward to develop good habits, develop momentum, which then beget more good habits and momentum. Next tip is to not be impatient. Quick fixes and magic bullets are a myth. There are no weird tricks for melting belly fat. There are no pills or powders for packing on muscle. And there are no biohacks for supercharging your chakras with higher vibrations of the green tea infinity. There's

only the work. The work produces forward motion. The forward motion becomes more forward motion. To reiterate, momentum creates momentum. Fuck inertia. That is the motto. The sooner you accept this, the more you will come to appreciate progress, which is itself motivating. The next tip is to take breaks. Don't chase unicorn farts, but also don't keep running full speed off a cliff. Take diet breaks. Take exercise breaks. Get some extra sleep now and then. Enjoy your holidays and vacations. Stay out of the gym when you're sick. Pushing the envelope too far too often is like speeding too much. It feels good. It feels like you are getting to your destinations much faster,

but you're not really. And the risks far outweigh the benefits. The next tip is to drink some liquid motivation because look, some days getting out of bed and into the gym is just way harder than it should be. It's like Earth's mass suddenly doubled overnight and now gravity is trying to stomp your bones into dust. Sure, you can trudge to and through your workout, but there is no shame in downing a hit of jitter juice to lighten the load. And especially when it is Legion Pulse, of course. The next tip is to get excited about your next workout. Seriously, sit there for a minute and contemplate your next workout. Feel the weights moving, your muscles contracting, your heart pumping. Hear the music in your headphones. Picture yourself hitting your rep targets or

maybe even a PR or two. Bask in the post-workout bliss. Whatever it is, find something in your next workout that excites you. The next tip is to call on a cheerleader because we all need cheerleaders in our lives. We all need people who love and believe in us in spite of ourselves. You are not dreaming about working out. You are chasing that dream down in a pickup truck full of chainsaw wielding juggalos. What you're doing is real and you need someone who's willing to declare how real it really is. You need someone who will always shake their pom-poms for you, not point, laugh, and fart in your general direction. And the next and final tip is maybe you can just stop looking for motivation. Because listen, working out is fucking hard sometimes.

Working out is trying to draw blood from a turnip. It's trying to read a Dickens novel. It is wrestling a porcupine in heat. And when you get right down to it, there is a point where you either appreciate working out and it motivates you or not. You either have the spark or you don't. You can only fan flames, not dirt. And at the end of the day, if you're only looking for little tricks and tips, then you need to think harder about this thing that you say you want to do. Because working out is a stormy love affair. It's an amusement park. It's a flickering neon sign. You are just drawn to it, even when it sucks like a pigeon to breadcrumbs. And that, I think, is what ultimately separates the aspiring,

not-really-fit people from the really fit people. The latter train even when it is hard, even when the motivation carcass is being picked by crows. They hook up the defibrillator, they crank up the dials, and they make the damn corpse dance again. It looks dead, but it isn't. Every day then is a revival. It is a resurgence of ability and action. Working out leads to more working out, just like crack leads to more crack. The best motivation to work out then is a workout. So work out when it's hard, work out when it's easy, work out when life doesn't want you to, work out when you don't want to, work out when people say not to, work out and then work out again and then work out some more.

Build a fire that feeds itself. You might love the process. You might hate it. You might love some workouts and you probably are going to hate some others. You might thrill at how your body responds or you might curse it. Keep going though and I can can promise you this as difficult as it is, you are going to learn to love having worked out. There is no other feeling like it. So go my friend and work out and let that be your motivation. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show

out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. Oh, and if you liked this episode, then you are going to love my newest book,

The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. You should definitely check it out because this book is my personal and 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. I promise that this book will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things that you care the most about. So if you want to learn how to better overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the little black book of workout motivation is for you. And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now I should also mention that there's an audio book

as well, one that I recorded myself. So if you like listening to me talk about this kind of stuff on the podcast, then you'll definitely like listening to the audio book. And you can actually get that audio book 100% free when you go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audio book and sign up for an Audible account. Now, I myself love audio books and highly recommend them to everyone because they let you take downtime that you spend commuting, prepping food, walking dogs, stuff like that

into something more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audio book for free, simply go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audio book, click on the little sign up today and save button, create your Audible account and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free.