As we head towards the end of February many people have unfortunately abandoned their healthy lifestyle goals that they set entering 2025. Good and bad habits take some time to develop, and if you have lost motivation due to lack of immediate results, or simply the grind of the job may have knocked you off track, let me provide one tool that might help get you moving in the right direction again.
Start here:
- Spend time writing down anything that is important to you in your life that strength and conditioning, skill training, or a healthier lifestyle will enhance. This can be a few rambling sentences.
- Find themes. Does staying healthy for family keep coming up? Work performance? Your faith? Higher calling?
- Ask yourself what truly motivates you to train. What actually gets you to do your least favorite exercise or even to eat broccoli?
- Find the “how” in your themes. Is it more time in the gym? The range? Trying to get more sleep?
- Condense it into a sentence or short phrase.
Examples for a Police officer:
I train to provide and protect.
I will come home to my family.
I will enjoy retirement with my family.
I signed up for this.
I owe this to my family, friends, and community.
Motivation usually comes from being nested in something bigger than yourself. For some, this can be their faith. For others it can be their sense of service. You might repeat this when your alarm goes off and you don’t want to move, passing certain foods at the grocery store, or when dry firing seems like a chore.
Notice that most of the sayings above are nothing about the gym. It instead hits closer to the foundation for what you do everyday and why you’re doing it.
Years ago I was listening to a sport psychologist talk about how she was working with a baseball pitcher. She had him put a small piece of tape on the back of his glove so that while he was on the mound, once his mind would drift and doubt might set in...he’d notice the tape and then remind himself to calm down and use some of her mental strategies she was teaching him.
This is a great practice to combine with your mantra. Put a picture of your family or something that reminds you of your goals on the dashboard of your patrol car. Any time you’re thinking that 40 ounce mountain dew is a good idea, once you see your family looking back at you there is a much higher likelihood you’ll pass. I’ve found when working with people some of their biggest motivations come from their family. Not necessarily in the form of actually cheering you on, but mainly the realization that you typically owe them an honest attempt at a healthy lifestyle.
I first read about this strategy in the book, Every Day Is Game Day. Mark Verstegen (founder of EXOS) and Pete Williams go into a much more detailed version of what I described above. I don’t think most people need to do exactly what they outline, but there is one strategy from this that I will recommend:
When you wake up repeat your mantra. Whatever it is, just say it. Set the tone for the day. That will set the tone for your week. Then in a few months check where your at on your goals. I’d argue you’ve probably made positive steps in the right direction.
Questions? Reach out.
