Mastering the Art of Motivation: Plus Four Keys from Larmfitness

Great things always start with an idea, but it's the motivation and dedication to bringing that idea to life that turns dreams into reality. For creatives and entrepreneurs, finding the right balance between inspiration, motivation, and action is crucial. It could be the difference between a season of success or one of setbacks. Today, we're diving into all things motivation to equip you with the keys to becoming unstoppable in your next season.

What is motivation?

Motivation is the thing that kickstarts the journey towards reaching our goals. It can be ignited by an internal desire to reach a specific goal, or it can be fuelled by external forces such as your community or environment.

Whether you’re building a dream team, or working on a tight deadline, mastering the art of motivation is a skill that can help bring out some of your best results.

What influences our motivation?

We believe there are three key factors that influence a person’s motivation as shown in the visual below. Understanding the role these factors play will help you with the next part: hacking your motivation.

How to hack your own motivation

To ‘‘hack’ (or rather, boost your chances of staying motivated) you can curate the factors that influence it by considering the following questions: 

• Factor 1: Self Think about what drives you as a person. What are your values? Are your dreams and goals aligned with these? The more our goals align with our true values, the easier it is to hold ourselves accountable and stay motivated. 

• Factor 2: Community Ask yourself if the people you regularly surround yourself with share and reflect your goals—and more importantly, your values? Having people around you who have already achieved the goal you’re working towards is a great way to boost motivation. 

• Factor 3: Environment

  Assess the places and spaces you regularly find yourself in. Consider whether they’re conducive to your values, dreams and goals. If they’re not, don’t be afraid to ask yourself  “how can I get there?”

Introducing Shalarm: Personal Trainer and Running coach 

If you’ve ever laced up your trainers for a morning run, or headed to the gym for a session of resistance training, you’ll know that keeping fit generally requires lots of discipline and motivation. Meet Shalarm who (as a personal trainer and running coach) deals with motivating himself and others all year round. Here are four keys he shared with us on the topic of motivation:

Key 1:  Mental focus - staying motivated through the seasons

Summer is the easiest season. When the weather’s nice, everyone’s outside! Winter is where it gets more challenging as everyone tends to start training indoors. For me, training outdoors in the winter is about knowing I’ve done it before. This is my third year without a gym membership, so I know that no matter how cold it gets, I’ve been able to push myself through it in the past. The first year was the hardest but it’s no longer new to me. So I have the mental discipline to know that I can do it.

Key 2:  Be consistent - showing up for yourself and others

For me personally, knowing how hard it is to get back into something I’ve abandoned is enough to keep me motivated. Whether it's due to an injury or just not being in the zone, when I weigh the option of starting over vs. staying consistent, I find it's much easier to choose consistency. With others showing up is easier. For example, if I’ve got to do a morning class and I know others are counting on me to be there, waking up at 5:15 is easy!

Key 3: Curate your community - creating a motivational ecosystem 

When motivation dips, which it will, having people around you who motivate you is important. A big source of motivation for me comes from my network. Take running for example. I’ve always got someone around me who is on ten, which helps on a day where I may wake up feeling like I’m on four. Knowing they’re only a phone call away helps me push through. I’m really grateful for the people around me that push me.

Key 4: Perspective - even your competitors can motivate you

On the entrepreneurial side of things  (between creating workout routines, merchandise and lots of content) motivation can also sometimes fluctuate. One thing that helps me is making use of the internet. We’ve got access to so many resources there—including motivation. Peers, and even business competitors who apply themselves differently to you, can be a huge source of motivation—especially when they're killing it too.

Final thoughts

If you've made it this far, you're already on the right track. By applying these keys and insights today, you'll soon be fully equipped to master your motivation and become an unstoppable force in the season ahead.

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About Shalarm

Shalarm is a personal trainer and running coach based in London, United Kingdom.

For fitness enquiries, connect with Shalarm on Instagram at Larmfitness. Watch Shalarm on YouTube or shop Larmfitness merch.