No Motivation to Work Out? 5 Self-Discipline Habits

Nikkiey: Today I'm going to share with you five top strategies that I've specifically incorporated over and over again to develop my self-discipline along my fitness journey. 99% of the success I've experienced has been directly correlated to my ability to act despite how I feel. I'm not always motivated to do shit, but I have built the discipline needed to get things done no matter what emotion I feel.

You can't rely on motivation to work out or to hit your daily macros. Motivation ebbs and flows, and your motivation tank will run out the majority of the time. Then you'll just give up and you'll wait for more motivation to come again.

Here's a way to get around that. Develop your self-discipline muscle and rely on that discipline, not on motivation. You aren't going to be motivated all of the time, but the discipline you develop for yourself is what will keep you going. It's the ability to control your feelings and overcome your weaknesses. It's the ability to pursue what you think is the right thing to do despite the temptations that you will experience to abandon it.

So before we dive into the five strategies, here's a bonus one to kick it off: consistency. Consistent effort will get you consistent results. Inconsistent effort will get you inconsistent results. Wondering why you aren't getting the results that you want? Ask yourself, are you being consistent? Be honest with yourself, because that's the goal: to self-check yourself and do what's necessary to get back on the consistency train.

All right, now let's dive into the five strategies to develop your self-discipline. Starting with number one: resist impulses. Resist all your urges that are connected to impulses, especially if they do not support your goals or your well-being. We have tons of impulses like, I just feel like a snack. I feel like having a drink. I feel like having a piece of chocolate, when all your macros are accounted for for the day. What you need to learn to do is to resist those impulses.

And here are a few examples. I feel like seeing how many people commented on this post today. Resist. I want to have the extra food left on my kid's plate. Resist. I want to lick the spoon with all the extra peanut butter. Resist. Just keep practicing that resistance. And then what will happen is you'll have the impulse, but instead of immediately reacting, you'll actually catch yourself and you'll be like, nope, not today.

It's insane. People have trained these loops in their mind so well. For example, when they unlock their phones, people just go immediately into a specific app routine. They open Instagram, then they open email, then they open Facebook, in that same order every time. They may not even notice this. It's just that automatic. And then they become aware that for the last 10 minutes to one hour, they have just been mindlessly scrolling and consuming that shit.

So what's happening here is that their body is moving automatically without it even passing consciously through the mind. That's how strong impulses are. So when you practice resisting your impulses more, you'll unlock your phone and you'll be like, no, that's not what I'm going to do right now. And then you are in control of yourself. Your impulses aren't in control of you.

And the same applies to your impulses when you're snacking when you're bored, and you eat that last bit of food off your kid's plate. It applies the same way. Embrace the resistance and recognize how those actions aren't going to help you. From there, you are in control. You are resisting the impulses.

Number two: love pain. Most people avoid pain. And I don't mean the pain of breaking your leg. I mean the pain of physical exertion, like when your heart is racing so fast, your muscles are tired, they're sore, and you're dripping sweat. That pain. People avoid this. Then this usually results in people saying they don't feel challenged enough in their workouts, because they aren't pushing to their full potential with that workout.

Nine. Ten. Did that look fucking challenging at all? Absolutely not. Let's put on some heavier weight and see what it looks like. This is what it should be like, you guys. I'm going for more. That's what it's supposed to look like. That's what challenge is.

If you find yourself in this one, I challenge you to push harder. What I just mentioned is the only way that you are going to build a strong body: by learning to love pain, embrace being sore, embrace the sweat. Because you're actually creating a challenging environment that your body is not used to. You are reaching metabolic stress with your muscles, which is where the growth happens. And that's how you're going to build muscle and change your body composition. Now, the pain is only temporary, but the results are absolutely tremendous.

Number three: sleep. Sleep is self-discipline. Make sure to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. It really is a true test of your self-discipline. To make sure that you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, you really have to police yourself. You have to wake up with your alarm and actually do it, not hit the snooze button. And then you have to get yourself to go to bed. Even if you're in the middle of watching Netflix, you just have to turn off the TV and go to bed.

Doing this helps your body and your chemicals stay balanced. If you're going to bed and waking up at the same time, your body learns this. So it spikes dopamine, it spikes melatonin, it spikes cortisol, and all of these different chemicals at different times, so that you can get sleepy at the right time and so that you can get fired up in the morning at the right time.

If you start screwing with this, or you don't have a solid sleep routine down, then you start throwing these chemicals in your body off track. You're going to spike cortisol and you're not going to be able to fall asleep. You're going to spike melatonin in the morning and you're going to feel like a zombie walking into work. You will wreak havoc on your body if you don't start getting strict with your sleep schedule. I can't stress this discipline strategy enough. This might be one of the most important ones. Focus on bettering your sleep, and I promise you, you will get faster and better results with your body composition.

Number four: gratitude. Be grateful. How many of you guys feel anxious worrying about what's going to happen in the next five minutes, five days or next week? Like you're always looking out into the future, wondering how fast results are going to come. Am I going to get results in two weeks? Am I going to get results in five weeks? When am I going to lose all these pounds? By the way, how the hell do you guys even know that what you are worried about is even going to happen? It's crazy the amount of stories that we feed ourselves about a situation that may never even occur.

All in all, be present now. The now is all that matters. You need to practice gratitude daily to balance yourself. Because if you're constantly looking out into the future and you're never grateful for anything that you've got right here, right now, you start to get anxious and your mind starts to worry and you create false accusations. Oh, I'm not where I should be. Oh, I'm not seeing results fast enough. Yet in reality, in the moment, you really are where you should be. You really are creating results. But you're too hooked on how things should be and not grateful for all that you've accomplished so far.

So you need to make sure that you practice gratitude. You should want things out in the future. You should think out into the future. But you should also be grateful for the things you've got right now and the results you are accomplishing right now. You should be grateful that each day you're given the ability to work out and you have the option of eating healthy food. Grateful that in one month you accomplished what you did accomplish, even if it's small. It's still something, and you did it to move you closer to your goals.

Number five: relentless persistence. Honestly, this is a core value of mine. Persistence. If I'm not operating from it, I feel insanely off. And this goes for planning your days, weeks and months of your life, basically everything: work, macros, workouts, everything ahead of time, and sticking with it. Then say no to everything else that is not in alignment with that, with what you want, your goals and what your family needs.

Saying no is one of the most powerful boundary-setting exercises that you could do for yourself. Say no to what does not serve you, and you welcome more opportunities into your world which do serve you. And it all starts with you. You have to make these decisions. You have to say no, and you have to be the role model. When others see your success, your focus, your drive, they will ask for your help, or naturally they will adopt your ways.

Now understand, no one in the world does these things perfectly all of the time. But the people that do these things closest to all of the time are the ones that win. There are two types of people in this world: people who make excuses and people who make it happen. People who make excuses get nothing, and people who make it happen get everything. So ask yourself, which one are you going to be today? And make sure you ask yourself this every single morning.

You're a powerful woman. You're a confident woman. You're a persistent woman. You know what you want and what is best for you. So act in alignment with that. And anything else that does not serve you, say no to it.