The Beginning
The process of discipline trumps motivation can be difficult to achieve and maintain. However, once it is achieved it will be easier to maintain. In return, it could be the root of success if it us used to an individual’s advantage. When I first started working out, I felt hopeless and lost in the gym. I felt like I was not using the machines correctly, engaging the right muscles, nor obtaining the proper range of motion during my exercises. To mitigate the uncertainty, I immediately conducted research on most of the workout movements to gain knowledge on how to properly do the movements. In addition, I invested time into finding individuals who managed to find success in their fitness journeys and investigated their diets, habits, sleep patterns, and performance. While doing the research, I realized that most individuals were using supplements to accelerate the process of gaining muscle or for muscle recovery.
It also came to my attention that most of these individuals were not training seven days a week and I was. I figured that training every day would lead to faster results. Boy was I wrong. There are many factors that contribute to a successful fitness journey. It was a bit overwhelming. Finding the time and motivation to workout is hard enough. However, managing a good diet and good sleeping patterns was another animal.
The Process
Although, it was a lot of new information and new habits to deal with, the process felt extremely smooth. Learning all the information, workouts, and meals to cook never felt like a chore. Often, I would think and ask myself why did it not feel like a chore? I realized that I was deeply invested into learning. Every little thing that could contribute to making me stronger, look better, and feel better meant that I had a love for the process. However, I will not lie, there were many instances where I would look at myself in the mirror not content with where I was.
That would only fuel me to strive harder for my goal. Fast-forward 5 years and today is push day at the gym, I am pumped! Push day is my favorite day to train. I get the best pump from push day and I feel absolutely invincible. Looking back at it, I knew that I would get to a point where I could walk in the gym and just breeze through my workout with confidence like today.
Discipline vs. Motivation
It took a long time to feel this way. Throughout my fitness journey, I learned something that cannot be taught. It must be learned by experience. That lesson is that motivation is only temporary. It will last for about 45 seconds, and it is gone. I hope I am making sense when I say this. This sensation is like a burst of positive emotions, and it feels like you can accomplish anything. Although the feeling is sweet, it is very short. So, what I learned was that motivation was not the key to success in my fitness journey. It was discipline. Discipline is what forced me to get up every day that I did not want to be in the gym. Come to find out discipline can be applied to any realm and achieve success, not just the gym.
