Throughout my adult life I have had a tendency to lose sight of the WHY? It’s and affliction that can leave you spinning in a whirlpool, that takes a lot of energy and effort to hoist yourself out of before the inevitable takes place.

Much like Princeton from the musical Avenue Q, I have often wondered what my purpose is? Why am I doing what I am doing, but finding the change too difficult to fully contemplate let alone actually achieve.

I stick to what I know. Repetitive and safe.

Fitness was always a sticking point for me. I never had the talent to take sport seriously. But when I did find my sport, it wasn’t the fitness aspects that appealed, more the drinking culture, the social aspects and the regularity of training and competing – a routine that became a safety blanket for the decades to come.

When I left University and looked for work, my commitment to the hockey pitch wavered. I could train more often than not, but not play the games. I told myself “at least” I trained. I had the security of that routine – but because I wasn’t playing competitively I trained very differently. I would run for the ball less, got lazy in the technique, I committed less to the game. Yes I was training – but what was I really getting from it except being able to tell myself that “at least” I did it?

More life happened and the Tuesday night training sessions became few and far between and I lost focus. This routine wasn’t working for my life, I was getting fat and I needed the security of routine again. So I joined a Gym.

I would go everyday, use the treadmill, do some sit ups and a dumb bell curl or two. I would tell myself “at least” you turned up.

More life happened and the daily sessions morphed into when I could, and on to every now and then. I lost focus. This routine wasn’t working for my life, I was getting fat and I needed the security of routine again. So I started to run.

I ran to a goal of running a marathon. I would run to work (12 miles) and spend summer lunchtimes in sweaty sportswear. The injured marathon was completed. As each subsequent run would and pass days or weeks spanned the periods of inactivity, I would tell myself “at least” you got out there and pounded the pavement.

As soon as the goal was removed, so to was the impetus to hold on to anything other than the “at least “ of it all.

When I started work with my trainer @tpmhealthandfitness I had a frank conversation with him. I knew I was stuck in the cycle but I didn’t know why or how I had got there. I remember telling him my fitness story and him asking

“What are you looking to achieve”

I replied without missing a beat “I want to be thinner”

And he said “I think we’re gonna need some more specific goals than that!”

From that moment on Tom helped me define my goals and provided me with the tools to achieve them. Instead of fitness for fitness’ sake, I had a reason to eat well, a reason to go to the gym and work myself hard in achieving the goals. The routine is good for me, there is no doubt about that, but more than that is the specificity of knowing what I want to achieve.

Now I know that if I am losing motivation, I’ve probably lost sight or what I am working towards. Yes I want to build muscle, get leaner and maintain a high level of fitness, but sometimes on a bad day, what I need from that session is to be kind to myself – to do the parts that make me happy – that goal is a daily goal that gets me through to the next day.

Goals change and develop with us. Being focussed on one thing unwaveringly can actually stunt our development, but not accepting that time, determination and persistence play a part will lead to high expectations and low gains.

I encourage you ask yourself WHY you are going to the gym, what goal are you going to achieve. Play the longer game and avoid the “at leasts”. You will get much more from reframing a goal than just going through the motions.

As with all of my fitness posts, I am no expert. My opinions are based on my experience. So feel free to take them with a pinch of salt, but maybe, just maybe they might help someone else out

TIB