When it comes to going to the gym or performing your physical exercise regimen, if you have ever found yourself looking for a bit of inspiration to help get (and keep) yourself motivated, then you’re certainly not alone. That’s the reason why the internet is full of an absolute boatload of information and insight as to how to find the motivation we seem to lack. The problem is that most of this information is built from various ideas that are not stemming from an unshakable foundation.

To have more inspiration for your workouts, you must have a mindset that celebrates what your body can do and love the process of working out more than the results themselves. This mindset avoids a fear-based mentality of feeling inadequate and reinforces the enjoyment of exercising.

A mindset built off of celebrating what your body is capable of doing is not only high-octane inspiration fuel, but it’s also the slowest burning fuel that will outlast the fuel of fear. Working out because you feel inadequate, afraid you’re not good enough or won’t matter to others unless you attain a better physique, etc., is fear-based and won’t sustain your efforts for very long. Sure, this “fear fuel” will get you into the gym, but it likely won’t keep you there since there’s no enjoyment to be found when living in this mindset. It’s a common mistake, but one can easily be avoided with a simple yet powerful shift in one’s perspective.

If you want to learn more about how this mentality can genuinely help with motivation and inspiration to work out, then keep on reading!

ARTICLE OVERVIEW (Quick Links)
The following headlines are quick links. Tap/click on any of them to instantly jump to that section of the article!

• Getting to the root of inspiration
• Realizing that you have a true gift
• Why you need to celebrate what your body can do
• Who can benefit from this powerful mindset
• How to define “celebrating”
• Ask yourself: How do you want to go to your grave?

Related article: Motivate Yourself to Workout at Home: Pro Tips to Get You Fired Up!

“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

– Socrates

GETTING TO THE ROOT OF INSPIRATION

To get to the root of inspiration – what will truly allow you to tap into consistent, sustainable workout inspiration – you must go deeper than sources that merely inspire you or motivate you within the moment. Making workout playlists, having a gym buddy, etc., are all great things to do (and should be done, if desired). I do all sorts of things like this to help myself along, and so have all the other great athletes and fitness professionals of our lifetime.

But these various tactics for inspiration and motivation are just leaves and twigs on a tree – they’re not the roots. The roots of a tree are what provide life and power to the entirety of the plant itself. We must look at effective, lasting inspiration for working out as the source (i.e., roots) that provides life to the entirety of our physically active and healthy lifestyle.

When you are able to tap into the roots that anchor the entire tree, you will then ultimately supply the trunk, branches, twigs and leaves with the life that they need. In this case, those branches, twigs and leaves are the various other realms of your fitness and lifestyle pursuits; they may each be different, but they all stem out from the same trunk.

Healthy trees grow bigger and become more robust because they’re anchored firmly by the roots and given the life support that they need. You as a person can grow bigger and stronger professionally, physically, mentally and spiritually if a system of strong roots is what anchors you.

In a very basic sense, you need to be intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation refers to doing something without receiving any external rewards (validation from others, etc.). This isn’t to say that extrinsic motivation is all bad, rather intrinsic motivation should always be at the forefront of your fitness endeavors, as there’s plenty of literature that has found intrinsic motivation to be much more effective for sustaining fitness regimens and healthy lifestyles.

If you’d like to read up more on intrinsic motivation, Healthline has a great article covering it in detail, which you can click here: Intrinsic Motivation: How to Pick Up Healthy Motivation Techniques

Here’s a couple of other studies you can read up on:

Exploring Motivation for Physical Activity Across the Adult Lifespan
Intrinsic Motivation and Exercise Adherence

But stay with me here, because, in the next couple of sections, I’m going to dissect an avenue of intrinsic motivation that isn’t often covered by others, yet makes a profound difference for finding greater motivation, inspiration and meaning in your physical activity pursuits.

REALIZE THAT YOU HAVE A GIFT

It’s imperative to understand that your body’s ability to move and respond to challenges is an absolutely phenomenal gift on the largest possible level.

If you can understand this, you’ll have a mindset that helps to feed every other tip or trick ever mentioned online for staying committed to your physical training regimen.

That’s right. All you need to do is open your eyes and realize that you’re not living with an imminent death sentence and that your body in its current state – at this very moment – can do something for you. It doesn’t matter if you have some current minor injuries or significant limitations due to a disease or long-standing condition because there are still plenty of ways to find movements and activities that you can enjoy. What you have right now is certainly worth celebrating.

USING MYSELF AN EXAMPLE:

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My body has seen its fair share of injuries and issues over the past couple of decades. As a result, I have torn ligaments in my right shoulder that I always need to be mindful of, a tear in one of the menisci (fibrocartilage) my left knee and a history of disc issues in my lower back that I’ve worked hard at to overcome. Throw in all sorts of other various aches and pains that arise here and there, and at times, it can make for some unique challenges with my physical activity pursuits.

I understand that I’ve got limitations and can’t do everything I’d like to do, but that’s all the more reason for me to celebrate. Whether I choose to celebrate or lament the current state of my body all comes down to my own personal outlook. 

On the one hand, I can view my body as something that is fragile, has a limited shelf life, and can no longer do every single activity I’d like to do. On the other hand, however, I can view my body as an amazing machine capable of many amazing activities and capable of becoming more robust if given the right activities. The latter is the mindset I choose to employ. Doing so helps me shift into an outlook that celebrates and values the importance of what I’m capable of doing.

It’s better to wear out than to rust out. I’ve got a gift, and I’m going to use it. 

I suggest you employ the same mindset.

WHY YOU NEED TO CELEBRATE WHAT YOUR BODY CAN DO

True enough, motivation for pushing yourself hard in the gym and regularly committing to the process can be helped by the “how badly do you want it?” mentality. My conjecture, however, would be that you’ll have greater lasting inspiration for working out if you think more along the lines of “how bad do you want to celebrate it?” To me, the harder you push yourself, the more outwardly you’re celebrating what you have. The difference is merely in the mindset from which you operate.

Now, I’m not saying that your only source of motivation for working out should be this foundational joy; rather, I’m saying that all your other reasons for being motivated should be stacked and built upon it. A foundation for a house is a necessity, but you need more than that to have a house you can effectively live within.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be leaner, run a little longer or have a better-looking physique, etc., as those are all powerful motivators in their own right.

Having multiple reasons for being motivated or inspired to work out is perhaps a sign that you have an obvious idea of what you want to achieve and a clear understanding of how badly you want it. This understanding, to me, implies that since you know what you’re willing to put yourself through, you certainly know what it is that you’re after.

I would merely contend with letting these types of factors be the framework for helping you attain your goals. The framework is critical, but it must be built upon an unbreakable foundation. That particular foundation is your ability to celebrate the amazing gift of what your body is capable of doing.

I’m also not saying that you should try to ignore the feeling of hard work and physical training. Training can be a grind. When you physically push yourself, you certainly feel it, and it doesn’t feel all that enjoyable. It would be best if you weren’t lying to yourself. Instead, acknowledge it and accept it. But, always be sure to bring it back to the foundational belief that your physical abilities are a gift, and as such, should be acknowledged and celebrated.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM THIS POWERFUL MINDSET?

Everyone from the complete rookie to even the most hardcore, intense and committed individual can benefit from this mindset. The reason being is that the act of pushing yourself because you are thankful and aware that you HAVE a body that will ALLOW you to push yourself is indeed a life-giving feeling.

In his autobiography titled Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger would talk about contributing much of his training success to his mindset of being absolutely in love with the feeling of what his fitness regimens would bring him. He would attribute this mindset to being the reason why he was always able to push himself more when everyone else around him wanted to quit. When many of his training partners and fellow gym-goers would verbally mention how tired they were and thus weren’t looking forward to the day’s training session, Arnold states that he didn’t struggle with this issue.

His mindset was that he was so in love with celebrating how his body was capable of being challenged and pushed that he didn’t see why others were dreading going in for another training session.

Ultimately, I would be bold enough to say that he was celebrating the gift of having a body that allowed him to do such things.

The mind is a powerful thing, but it’s the views from which it operates (via the lens in front of it) that cultivate and manifest an ability to create a lasting desire for what it longs for when finding inspiration with working out.

Suppose the lens that acts as your overall mindset for inspiration to workout captures the thoughts of working out, filters them and produces an image based on the fear of inadequacy, frustration from feeling limited by your body’s capabilities, etc. In that case, your brain will get an overall negative image that affects your mindset when it comes to feeling inspired to work out.

However, suppose the lens that shapes and produces the image is one that chooses to focus on what we do have and what we are capable of within the moment. In that case, it will then project some seriously good connotations onto the brain, which will cultivate an inspired mindset.

HOW TO DEFINE “CELEBRATING”?

What can perhaps be lost in semantics in this post is what we’re interpreting “celebrating” to mean. On a superficial thought level, it can connote and conjure up images of feeling happy in a way that makes it hard to correlate with the intensity we might be used to having when we push ourselves somewhat hard during physical activity.

How are you supposed to feel happy, let alone express it outwardly, when you’re dog-tired, and your lungs are burning from sucking wind or your legs are shaking and burning from the exercises you’ve been doing?

For this, I’d first say that the outward celebration is actually the physical act of pushing yourself to those fatiguing and often uncomfortable levels. Second, I’d say that you’re not supposed to necessarily have that particular internal feeling of joy at the forefront of your emotions when you’re in the thick of it – but, it should be present enough that when you quickly remind yourself that there could easily come a day in which your body can no longer do these activities, you feel a sense of joy in the fact that you’re gasping for air from volitionally challenging yourself rather than gasping for air on your deathbed.

ASK YOURSELF: HOW DO YOU WANT TO GO TO YOUR GRAVE?

Imagine this scenario: You spend your whole life avoiding physical activity due to a lack of inspiration. Then, one day you realize that your body is steadily and swiftly beginning to fail you. What a terrible heartache it would bring you to go to your grave realizing that you took your physical abilities and overall health for granted simply because you never realized the importance of celebrating what had been given to you.

To exist across a lifetime only then to look back and realize that the gift of being given a body that was able to be pushed and challenged was taken entirely for granted is just a brutal thought to have. It was a life-enhancing gift that you never unwrapped or took out of the box.

Or, imagine this scenario: You were physically active for most of your life, but ONLY because the fear of being inadequate drove you, telling you that your overall self-worth would be less had you not. You realize that you trained for your particular sports and physical pursuits ONLY because you were concerned with how others perceived you or because you always dwelled on how you didn’t feel good enough. What a tragedy it would be as you were to lay on your deathbed reflecting on such things.

So yeah, we can sit here and talk about all the great ways to find extrinsic and intrinsic factors of motivation to get us started and keep us going for our physical pursuits, but to build it all upon a foundation lacking in the joy – the high-octane, slow-burning fuel – that can TRULY sustain us in our physical pursuits is an egregious oversight.

Celebrate the fact that today you have a body that is filled with an ability to let you push it and challenge it in some form and to some certain capacity, whatever it may be.

If you have a healthy body with no limitations, celebrate the fact that you’ve got a license to go full throttle and push that thing with serious intensity. If you’re plagued with chronic injuries or diseases, celebrate that finding the right challenges for your body will still do amazing things that will spill out positive changes to multiple domains within your life.

Very few of us have a body with no current injury/condition limitations, and very few of us are in such bad condition that there’s not a single physical task we can perform. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, which means we still have plenty of things about our body’s abilities to celebrate, and plenty of ways we can find enjoyment in the process of challenging it.

Final thoughts

Go train for all your goals that you’ve set, whether to squat 2.5 times your body weight or run a marathon or any other possible goal. Let the thought of thankfulness for what you have and what your body is capable of doing for you always be one step in front of you, inviting you back for more and more training sessions. Let it call you to push yourself a little harder for a little longer simply because you have the gift of a body that will let you do so.

If you do that, you will stay consistent and motivated enough to achieve your short-term, medium-term or long-term training goals, which is something worth celebrating. But, in addition to that, I would contend that the TRUE celebration will not be in the fact that you obtained your goals, crushed your competition, set a record, etc., but rather in the fact that the culmination of all your training was attained in the spirit of being grateful for what you’ve been given.

If nothing else, it will make laying on your deathbed one distant day in the future all that much easier, as you lay there knowing that you always celebrated what your body gave you.