Motivation or Consistency — Which Is More Important?
A healthy lifestyle can feel like a matter of wanting it enough: either you want to do it, or you don’t. The truth is that motivation is more complicated than that. Motivation is not just a feeling — it’s a force that energizes action to reach goals. Healthy habits don’t require a sense of excitement or enthusiasm, they require a willingness to act. [1]
There may be times where you feel inspired to start healthy habits, but struggle to stick to them once the spark wears off. The good news is that you don’t have to rely on feeling motivated to keep going. Let’s explore how you can lean on consistent action to make your healthy lifestyle last. [2]
Why consistent action is your strongest tool
Imagine you’re trying to eat a more nutritious diet. With sugary, salty, and other less-healthy options everywhere, you may never feel motivated to reach for the nutritious choice. Similarly, if you were to only exercise when you felt motivated to do it, you may be lucky to get a single workout in. So how can you help yourself make those healthy choices?
Make hard choices ahead of time: Having too many options for how to do a healthy habit can work against you. Instead of saying, “I will eat healthy” and trying to make new choices each day about how to do it, try “I will eat a piece of fruit with breakfast every day.” Choosing a simple and clear action that you can do a few days in a row can help you build up to more consistent changes over time. Plus, knowing ahead of time what you need to do to stay on track can make each day, each action less daunting — especially on days that you don’t feel motivated. [2]
Track your progress: Keep track of how often you do each healthy action you commit to. Being able to see that you’ve been able to do something consistently can give you confidence in your ability to keep going. Tracking your progress can also help you acknowledge the times when you completed your healthy action even when you didn’t feel like it. [2]
Anchor yourself in the future: Rather than thinking about how you feel about the healthy action right in front of you, think about how you’ll feel a few weeks or months out once you’ve made this healthy action a regular habit. Dream about how you may feel more energy, less pain, more confidence! [2]
Trust the process: It takes time for a new habit to start to feel “normal.” Just like getting to know someone new, spending time with your new habits can be the best way to make them feel natural. With time and consistent action, a new healthy habit can become your new “normal.” [2]
Many factors can affect your ability to succeed with healthy habits. One of the best ways to make them stick is to focus on the actions you want to do rather than how you feel about the actions. Oftentimes, waiting to feel motivated to do a healthy action can be a recipe to fall off track. Rather than relying on feeling motivated to do your healthy habits, use some of the tips above to create consistent action. The actions you repeat over time can become habits. [2]