6 Methods To Keep Your Drive Alive In The Gym
Motivation is temporary. Drive is enduring.
At one time I had no idea what that meant. I thought that motivation created the drive to train and accomplish your goals in and out of the gym. Then I realized motivation only plays a small factor in accomplishing your goals.
The truth is, to fully stay committed to your goals and accomplish what you set out to, you have to do more than staying motivated. You have to have drive. Once you have drive, nothing can stop you. I realize that motivation is one of the most talked about things when it comes to getting results in the gym, and for a good reason. You have to be motivated to start. The problem arises when motivation is all you have to get through your training.
That song, podcast or motivational video will only power you through that difficult set for so long. There will come a time when even the best motivational speech won’t get you fired up. This is when drive comes in.
We have all experienced those days when you get to the gym and everything feels off and you swear the weights feel heavier than they did the time before. You may even start packing up your bag, ready to call it a day and just leave. But then you ask yourself, “Do I really want to quit or do I want to push towards my goal?” Drive means pushing to achieve your goals, even when the motivation disappears.
Here are 6 methods that I use daily in and out of the gym to keep the drive alive.
1. Determine (And Write Down) Your Goal
The first thing you need to do is define a goal you are trying to accomplish. This goal needs to be reasonable but it also should be challenging enough to keep things interesting. Allow room for error as you will have setbacks during your journey. Stay focused on WHY you made that goal and keep going.
2. Develop A Plan To Get To Your Goal
Having a goal is only the first part. Next thing you need is a plan of attack to get there. This could come in form of a certain program or a certain nutrition approach or a combination of both.
A solid plan for a goal in the gym must:
- Allow you to have adherence
- Allow for setbacks
- Contain some type of progressive progression as you go through it, for example, the rise of training volume over time
- Include enough recovery so you don’t burn out
- Have a defined start and end date
Building a plan does not have to be hard but it has to be done to stay driven.
3. Connect With Others That Also Have Similar Goals
Being alone in accomplishing your goal can get challenging. Having accountability partners or training partners can really help you stay driven when you are struggling. Find others that you enjoy being around and have similar goals and your drive will immediately be improved. They say you are the average of the 10 people you are around most often, so make sure the majority of those people are also driven and goals. Then, watch as you all accomplish your goals together!
4. Have Some Mental Reset Workouts On Hand For Those Days Where You Can’t Find The Motivation
I have found this to be extremely important for not getting burnt out or bored with your regular training. You know the days I’m talking about. You get to the gym and struggle to even want to warm up or start your first set. This is when you should pull out one of your mental reset workouts to completely change things up that day. There are many ways to go about this, but here are a few of my favorites:
- Turn your regular workout into a circuit instead of straight sets — hit one move after another, do 3–4 rounds and call it a day
- Change the pairings and/or order of your routines. Do you usually superset Arnold presses with lateral raises? Try supersetting Arnold presses with bicep curls. Mix it up and have fun!
- Get crazy with machines. If you’re really having a rough day, just do one all-out set on each machine in the gym with only 1-minute rest in between. This is harder said than done, but it’s a ton of fun.
- And when all else fails, just take the day off and rest. You will come back more driven the next training day.
5. Track Your Workouts
It never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t track what they did in the gym. How do you expect to hit your goals if you just show up to the gym and lift without tracking what you’re doing?
Sure it will work for a while, but what do you do when you get stuck on a certain poundage and can’t figure out how to get stronger? The program has to change — and how do you know what you need to change if you’re not writing down what you’re doing? Before I step foot in the gym I have notes app ready with exactly what I’m going to be doing for the day.
For example, this is today’s lower session.
As you can see I have the exercises, the planned reps and sets, and the order. Now, I just have to go through and check off the lifts as I complete them. You also notice that I leave a place for notes. This allows me to rate every training session on a scale of 1–10 and record any issues or successes I had during that lift. If I, for example, have more than 3 days with 3/10 then I know I need to back off some or take a de-load week. If I am getting 8/10 or 10/10 every day, then I know the plan is working perfect and I may even need to up my intensity! These are things I never would know if I did not track.
6. Take Time To Appreciate Your Success
So you accomplish one of your goals, now what?
Some people will say you should move right onto your next goal and live in the present, but I’m going to disagree with this popular response. I recommend you accomplish a goal, you should take the time to appreciate what you have accomplished and THEN set up a new goal. Taking time to appreciate what you have done is important for your mental long-term success. We are human after all and being rewarded always leads to long-term success in what we do.
We are all human and we all have bad days. However, don’t forget that you are focused on the long term. Don’t let the bad days get in the way of your long-term success. Take each day, day by day and use the steps I provided above to reach your goals and stay driven!
