Transcript: Stop Waiting to Feel Motivated: Why Action Comes First

Motivation is not gonna be what makes you finally start working out. What's up, you guys? Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today, I have another awesome voice note from a podcast friend of mine. She's actually a podcast producer, and she and I met, well, virtually. We've never actually met in person. We met virtually many moons ago, whenever I was hosting Podcasting 101 with RSS.com, teaching people how to start and grow their own podcast. She was one of my featured guests, and I learned so much about podcasting from her, and I just was so excited that whenever I started a fitness podcast, she was one of the first people I reached out to, and I was like, I ever have guests on, I really want to talk to you. I really want you to be part of this because I just think she's awesome. And she's a yoga teacher. She

works with health and wellness coaches and fitness peoples and all the things. And so, of course, whenever I started asking people for voice notes, I reached out to Jamie and I was just like, hey, girl, send me something. I need some voice notes. And she sent a good one. And here's what she had to say. Hi, Ashley. I'm Jamie Brooke, a podcast producer for health, fitness, and wellness podcasts. I am also a yoga teacher with a psychology background.

One of the biggest misconceptions we have around health and fitness is that motivation comes before action. We think that we need to feel motivated first. We tell ourselves, when I feel motivated, I'll go to the gym. When I feel motivated, I'll start. walking again. When I feel motivated, I'll eat healthier. Maybe Monday. This is usually worded as when I feel like I have more energy, I'll go to the gym. When it stops raining, I'll start walking again. When I don't have so many social plans, I'll start eating healthier again.

But the truth is, motivation almost never shows up first. There's a concept from the book Atomic Habits that completely reframes this. The idea is that action actually creates motivation, not the other way around. In other words, you don't wait to feel like it. You take the action first. And then motivation follows. Think about how often we sit around waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect energy, the perfect mindset. But our brains are very good at generating excuses when motivation isn't there yet. Ugh, it's raining.

I'm so tired. How about I start next week? I definitely don't have time today. And the longer we wait for motivation to appear, the harder it becomes to start. Because we start to not even trust ourselves. We start to give up faith in what we're capable of doing. Because we said we were going to do it, and we didn't. Why would today be any different than yesterday? But something interesting happens once you take that first step without talking yourself out of it. Once you go for the walk, once you make it to the gym, once you roll out the yoga mat. your body starts remembering what it feels like to move.

Your energy shifts, your mood changes, and suddenly the thing that felt so hard to start actually makes you feel good. That feeling is what builds real motivation. I see this play out all the time. A close friend of mine used to be incredibly active. She swam regularly at her gym, walked all the time, and movement was just a natural part of her life. But now she's retired and she tells me she just can't seem to get motivated to start again. She says she doesn't have the time because she has so many projects going on, so many errands. And I get it. Life fills up so quickly. There's so many opportunities to give yourself an excuse for why you can't get to the gym. You can't go for a walk. But you'd think when you're retired, kids are out of the house. You don't have a full -time job anymore.

How could you come up with an excuse for why you can't work out? But here's a perfect example of someone who did just retire, who doesn't have a full house full of kids running around, who doesn't have a full -time job that takes up. 40 hours of her week, and yet she's still finding reasons for why she can't get to the gym to swim and she can't walk, etc. The truth of the matter is that we will always find reasons to prioritize something different than the gym, than the walk, than eating healthier, because that is the issue.

It's the fact that we don't have the motivation in order to start the action. And I hate to say it, but your life so fulfilling, so much going on, but it's really just about finding how to reprioritize things. So the challenge really isn't the time, it's that first step. Because when you're out of the habit of moving, the brain waits for motivation to magically show up before taking action. But it doesn't work that way.

Motivation is the result of doing the thing. So instead of asking yourself, do I feel motivated today? A better question is, what is the smallest action I can take right now? Maybe it's a 10 -minute walk. Maybe it's just putting on your workout shoes and sports bra and leaving the house and seeing where you end up. Action creates momentum. Momentum creates motivation. And motivation is what makes the habit stick. So if you're waiting to feel motivated before you start taking care of your health, you may be waiting forever. So start with the action. Motivation will catch up. How true. Oh my goodness. Did y 'all hear that? She said, don't wait for motivation. She said that you need to just get your booty in gear and start working out now. I can relate so much to that because if I had kept waiting for motivation to be the thing that finally made me start working out, finally made me start doing

the work that needed to be done to get my butt in shape, I would still be the overweight girl that couldn't take a flight of stairs, that couldn't do a plank, that couldn't do a jumping jack, that couldn't get through 15 minutes of Zumba. So take Jamie's words to heart, y 'all. If you're waiting for motivation, cut it out. Instead, just get to work. Start doing one small thing right now. Move your body. And I guarantee that that momentum will be the thing that keeps you going. Keep showing up, keep moving your bodies.

I hope you enjoyed this voice note. If you wanna leave one for me too, for my listeners, I would absolutely love to hear from y 'all. Go to famousashleygrant.com backslash fitness and leave a voice note for me. And if you are a person who's on a journey, just like me, and you wanna tell people about it, hit me up. I wanna know what it's like for you, what you're going through, what you're feeling, like all the things. I can't wait to hear from y 'all. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?