What gets you out of bed in the morning?

I remember it clearly.

It was the first day of my new life. My new work.

Work as a personal trainer and coach.

I could barely sleep. I was too excited. But I had no problem getting up at 5 a.m. when my alarm went off.

Of course, this doesn't last forever. No one gets up every single day like this, no matter how much they love their job, their passion etc.

But it makes me think of an important idea.

This idea about being excited. What motivates you to change your life?

I'm sure it's not seeing pics of models on the cover of men's health. Or some big gym sending you a flyer saying "get fit, get healthy!"..

But what will get you to change? What is the catalyst that can drive this difficult transition?

It's not for me or anyone else to know. No one can tell you what will drive you to get up at 5 a.m. and go train, when all you want to do is sleep another hour in a nice warm, cozy bed.

Only you can find that reason that will propel you when you get home from work and you are exhausted and stressed and hungry and just want to lay on the couch and watch sports center.

But what will it be? Is it to be healthy for your kids? And then grandkids? Is it to get lean so next summer you aren't embarrassed to take your shirt off? Maybe it's to prove to someone that you can do it.

The more the reason can resonate with you, the better the chance you will stick with it when things get tough. And they will.

Everyone can start and go a few weeks/months.

This can be tough enough and part of the barrier to being consistent with fitness is the fear of failure. That you will give up eventually. Go back to your old ways. Your will-power will run out of gas.

But if you have a powerful reason, that comes from deep within yourself, you will have much much better odds of sticking to it.

So if you don't know your reason yet or have lost your way, do some soul-searching. See what resonates with you. It may be totally different from the last time you committed to a fitness regimen.

If you're 45 years old and working long hours in a white-collar job, you're motives will be different than when you played high school baseball and wanted to be a better athlete, stronger and look muscular for the chicks. (maybe the last part is still the same)

This exercise of looking within to find what drives you to change into a better version of yourself, is so crucial. It's easy to overlook it. Many do.

Don't be one of them who think they can just will themselves into the gym when they sign up for a year at a big commercial gym. Thinking that because they pay $30 a month that they will automatically go and results will come.

Find what compels you, what drives you. And make this your best month ever.

How Do You Get Motivated?

I'm fired up today. And I sure didn't wake up that way.

How do I get motivated? How do YOU get motivated? To train. To improve your fitness. To get stronger. To gain muscle, burn fat, get healthier, own your life, gain confidence, fill out a shirt, get better at a sport etc..

Regardless of what anyone else says, this is my opinion here. I believe that no one is 100% motivated at all times. And I also believe that motivation doesn't always have to come from within like some hardcore fitness gurus may say.

Example.

And I'll make this quick, because it's a blog not a novel and we all have like 5 seconds to spare so here we go.

Today I was exhausted. Spent. Almost hit the snooze this am. I never do that.

Fighting off some kind of sinus/allergy crap and it's annoying the heck out of me. Putting a drain on my energy. I can go on and on all the reasons why but here's what I did. The action.

I said I'm going to the gym to just do one exercise. Just 1. Then I'll sit in the sauna and sweat for a half hour. So that's what I set out to do.

Packed my gym bag, went to do my 1 exercise. It wasn't even going to be a really tough one. Just rear delts. But like almost every single time I play this mental trick on myself, once I get there, get going, warm up, feel some blood moving in the body, a bit of sweat, heart rate goes up.. then on to the next exercise... few reps, some sets later.. on to the next.. and then I'm revved up with some music that gets me going.

I had some old school Black Sabbath come on. Boom, I started hitting up the dips with bodyweight for high reps. Feeling awesome. Still tired yes. Same body. Yes. Same mind. But I found a way that worked FOR ME.

And that's the answer.

Find whatever will get the job done for you. Today. This moment. OR whenever you go work out. Find it. It's out there. Or in there. Either way.

Maybe you need to get stronger for your family.

Maybe you have a wedding coming up and need to look better.

Whatever it is. Just do one exercise. Just do cardio. Just walk.. etc.. start. And you will be surprised how much just getting moving will do for you.

Motivation is not some magical thing that only the select few possess and they have it all the time. Everyone has to find ways to get up early. To go to work and stay late and still go to the gym afterwards when all they want to do is go lay on the couch and eat chips and dip.

Find a way. Outside. Or inside.