Transcript
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?