A lot of times we seek absolute answers - the best diet, the best abdominal exercise, the best type of cardio…I guess this is probably just in our human nature to want to quantify things in some way.

What we have come to learn is that from a bigger picture, these classifications of absolutes often don’t help us with our consistent behavior, so there is so much variability on what we get out of any diet or exercise program.  This holds true for our motivation as well.  There are so many factors in life that affect our motivations to focus on one thing or the other, in this case, our physical condition and lifestyle…

We have seen one person be extremely motivated to eat the right thing, for a single meal, a single day…even as long as several months.  But the truth is that motivation is a difficult thing to predict, and it has so many different variables which affect it.

For example, if we turn our cameras on a documentary subject who hasn’t been eating right for several days, suddenly the motivation to eat properly or exercise a little bit harder increases, because of the external factors in our environment.  When we turn the cameras off, and the kids start screaming for McDonalds, it can be a different story.

So ultimately, our motivation has a tendency to ebb and flow, and we must accept this to a certain degree. We will see periods of intense motivation, where we do everything right, and then we see other times when there is little to no motivation to do the “right” things that will advance us closer to our goals.

How then, can we change this unpredicability?  (remember, that these are only theories we are constructing as we continue to piece together this film)

Remember how our mindset affects what we do?  As our motivation ebbs and flows, we can try to practice a couple of things:

1) We must remember that no matter what our last bad action was, that each new day represents a chance to change the direction of our lives.  It is sometimes a difficult thing to change our direction, but we must remind ourselves that despite our lack of motivation to eat right and exercise for the past week or month…this can change instantly.

2) We must remind ourselves of the long term outlook.  The longer we prolong our decision to change, the worse the problem can get…and our depression or unhappiness will persist.  In other words, the problem will not go away unless we attack it with a new strategy, NOW.  Common sense of course…but sometimes we need to be reminded of this I think.

3) Sometimes we are not capable of pulling ourselves out of a rut (ok, well most of the time).  We must realize this ourselves!  We must then, take specific action to change our own mindset, which is an extremely difficult thing to do.  Sometimes this means finding a friend, mentor, or coach who we know always can motivate us.  These people challenge what we do, create interesting perspectives that help us rationalize positive behavior, and give us a little boost in times when we are not too interested in doing the right things.  When we can do this, we can improve our ability to stay motivated or to get remotivated. 

4) During our motivated “state”, we must take specific actions that will reduce the chances of us losing motivation.  The most powerful way to do this is by creating an environment for ourselves that improves our chances.  Making little bets with friends, joining a community of other forward thinking individuals (weight watchers, overeaters anonymous, running clubs, boot camps)…these are steps we should take when we are motivated, even if we feel we do not need them at the moment…mostly because we must remember that our motivation, while very intense at one moment, can be lost very quickly.  When we go to dinner with friends that are trying to be healthy and motivate each other, our ability to resist temptation is far greater than with friends who don’t particularly care.

5) Remember the things that lift us up.  An inspirational movie, website, or book of positive sayings.  Often when I get stuck during this filmmaking process, I go back to the documentaries that inspired us in the first place.  Sometimes this is hard to do when we are feeling negative or in a rut.  Keep a list of these things, to remind us when we forget!

We can rationalize away why we shouldn’t do these things, why we are waiting for the perfect moment.  Just remember the perfect moment is rare.  We might wait for the perfect moment for a long time. 

Today is the perfect day to get remotivated and set some new goals for ourselves, that make us excited about our future.