For many people, the start of a new year means making resolutions and setting new goals. As a fitness instructor for 15 years, January meant class sizes would increase significantly with many new members joining to meet their new resolutions. The room would be packed to start the year only to return to normal class sizes by mid-February or early March. 

Recently, one of my clients asked me, “why does my motivation for my new year’s resolution always fade out so fast? How can I stay motivated all year?” 

Fading motivation stems from a shift in the way you are thinking about your goals. Motivation is a feeling, and feelings are created by your thinking. If your original resolution was to go for a run every day, you may have started out thinking thoughts like “I can do this” and “this will be worth the effort.”

However, as the days pass and you adjust to this new schedule, your brain might begin to offer you some less helpful thoughts like “just this one day doesn’t matter” or “it’s OK if I skip today.” 

These thoughts are not likely to create a feeling of motivation. When you believe these, you might feel apathetic or permissive and then choose to skip a day. When this happens, it’s likely that your brain then offers you even more thoughts about your decision to skip a day.

The fact that you have these unmotivating thoughts doesn’t mean that anything has gone wrong. Your primitive brain is motivated by three primary areas of focus: avoiding pain, seeking pleasure and conserving energy. 

It makes sense that your brain will try to convince you that doing something new is not a good idea. This new running schedule likely feels uncomfortable and requires you to expend more energy. 

Just because these obstacle thoughts pop up does not mean you can’t achieve your goal, you get to decide whether or not you will believe them.

And that leads to my client’s second question about staying motivated throughout the year. It can be helpful to think about the desired result you want to create from this new habit or resolution and work your way back to the present. This process can help with any goal or resolution, whether it is weight loss, fitness, business, home organization, etc. 

In this fitness example, maybe your goal is to run a distance race later in the year. To achieve that result, you will need to take a number of actions before the actual race day including running regularly. Brainstorm what you think that list will include for you; be thorough. Your list of actions might include purchasing new running shoes, scheduling training times, working with a trainer, and even registering for the race. 

The actions you take are driven by your emotions. While motivation is one emotion that can create your desired actions, consider what else you might need to feel in the year ahead to reach your goal. If you plan to run this race, you might need to feel determined, committed, focused, and more. 

Your thinking in the year ahead is what will create those feelings and drive your actions. What do you need to believe about yourself and your goal to feel emotions like committed or determined? How might you respond to the negative thoughts if you feel committed and believe, “This is happening no matter what?”

Do you have a question about your goals or any other topic? Send them to kari@heykarianne.com OR submit via the “Ask Kari” page at heykarianne.com.