#Weeknotes 17 (14 May) — Staying motivated with minimal willpower
I had a chat with a friend earlier in the week. She said that she struggled with mustering the willpower to stick to her exercise goal and routines.
For context, she’s one of the most disciplined people I know when it comes to sticking to personal goals and rules. When we were colleagues and worked on a project together, she’d choose to walk an hour to the office every morning, rain or shine. She sticks to her health salad lunches during weekdays without exceptions (even when we had pot luck!) She never skips a torture Tuesday (some horrible exercise meetup where you do high-intensity workouts non stop) which meant no after-work activities on those evenings.
Needless to say, the discipline and perseverance qualities that I admire so greatly are a big part of her identity. So I can understand that she felt that she let herself down when she wasn’t able to stick to some of these routines. I’m sure all this COVID situation didn’t make things any easier.
As her friend, I wanted to help or apart from some wisdom. Except I didn’t have any. It did make me reflect on myself. What keeps me motivated? What are some things that help me muster the willpower to do things?
After some thinking, I realised often I relied on something external to help me boost my motivation.
I always liked the idea of getting some exercise in before the start of a workday. But I also love sleep. I’ve mastered my morning routine so I can sleep for an additional few minutes. I know it’s not realistic for me to wake earlier than needed to do any workout. Sleep always wins. Except when there’s commitment involved. Not to myself, but others. So I’ve been scheduling early morning calls with friends before work to catch up with them and at the same time, I’d use that opportunity to go for a walk. That usually get me around 5 thousand steps before work starts. Feels pretty good. Leveraging commitments made to others really helped.
Using the same tactics has helped me successfully complete 2 HIT workout challenges by the evil Chloe and a few Yoga challenges with Adriene. By participating with friends, we hold each other accountable and makes it easier to complete the challenges we set for ourselves. I know that I won’t be able to do those on my own without ‘skipping’ days.
I also want to read more. I have these rare occasions where I’d be on a reading streak. More often than not for winding down, I opt to relax and watch Netflix or read mangas (recently I’ve been into these). It’s just so easy. The result is that now I have a growing backlog of books I want to read but never get around to. I know that when I do get to sit down and read, I quite enjoy it. I found that what helped me read books in a more timely manner was to have an external deadline made by others. In this case, it’s book clubs. I haven’t been to many of those but on the occasions where I did sign up, I always manage to finish reading the book so I can share thoughts with others in the session itself. I’ve been trying to nudge my colleagues to resume book club activities at work… unbeknownst to them, it’s mainly for my benefit.
I can also see services that are also helping people by being external motivators. Services like Hellofresh send you recipe cards with all the right amount of ingredients you need to get the cooking started right away. The menu is always delicious and the methods not too challenging. I imagine it made many people who never cooked before feel empowered that they can by making it real easy and with little risk of things going wrong. A colleague orders Hellofresh to empower her teenage children to cook for themselves and be comfortable with cooking. What a great idea.
Willpower is difficult to muster and deeply sought after.
Sustaining motivation by oneself is simply too difficult. Is it doable? Maybe. But certainly not for me! Just like an emotion, Motivation can’t be controlled and prolonged by one’s will alone. I can’t will myself to be like those startup founders they interview on podcasts. Thinking doesn’t always make it so.
We should all commitments to others, external services, and technologies to help you stay motivated. Cause why not?
I’m super excited to receive my apple watch this week. I’m hoping the fitness tracking on it will act as a good reminder for me to stand more when I’m sitting hours long working at my desk and make sure I get some steps in a day as well as some exercise. I think some things are worth outsourcing no?
Now does relying on these external factors mean I’m not as disciplined or motivated? Maybe. But maybe it’s also the results that count? =D
Until next week!
