50. How to Create Unstoppable Motivation

My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve learned that running more and eating less does not work for weight loss, and that there’s a better way. Now I help runners like you to get leaner and get stronger, so you can run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode number 50 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And I can’t believe we’re at episode number 50 already. This is amazing. So today, I’m going to be talking about how to create unstoppable motivation for yourself.

One of the most common issues that I get from my clients is that they tell me they lost their motivation, whether they’re trying to stick to their food plan, or you know, trying to lose weight. Or maybe it’s a running schedule, they don’t do it because they just don’t feel like it.

They feel like they’ve lost their mojo. So they might be doing fine for a while they might, you know, things might be working for a while, but then all of a sudden, their motivation just disappears. Okay, so they no longer feel motivated to stick to the plan. So they find themselves eating whatever, not running, not getting up to run whatever it is, they just end up quitting on themselves.

And if this sounds like you, if you’ve ever done this before, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Whether it’s trying to stick to a food plan or trying to stick to a running schedule, you need motivation to make it happen. And so in this episode, I’m gonna explain where you find that motivation where motivation really comes from. And I’m going to offer some tips on how you can create unstoppable, unstoppable motivation for yourself. So you can continue to stick to your plan so you can hit your goals. Cool.

First, I wanted to just invite you guys to join our Running Lean community on Facebook, if you haven’t already done so, come and hang out with us. It’s fun, we’re doing a fun challenge the month of December, up until January 1, we’re challenging each other and motivating each other or like trying to, to run a mile each day between Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day.

And so we’re having a lot of fun over there. I do weekly talks, kind of like the podcast trainings and things like that, in the Facebook group, the Facebook group and this podcast kind of go hand in hand, so come check us out.

Also, I want to let you guys know something that because I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this by popular demand, I’m going to be opening the doors to the Running Lean monthly coaching group. So I’m going to be opening the door starting January 3.

This is my monthly coaching program, where you get first you get access to all of my online courses, including the weight loss training course for runners is going to show you exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat burning machine, okay, but you also get live group coaching calls with me and your fellow runners.

So you’ll get the encouragement and support not only from me, but from the group. And this will help you to stay on track. This will make sure you are able to hit your goals for 2021 the accountability factor alone totally worth it.

Also, in January we’re gonna be doing in the group, we’re going to be doing a powerful goal setting workshop so we can all get started on this year on the right track. You do not want to miss this. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and make 2021 your year. Let’s put 2020 behind us.

I want to help you become the badass runner that you’ve always wanted to be. And by joining the monthly coaching group, this is how you do it. Okay, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and join the monthly coaching group. It’s going to be awesome.

Okay, so let’s talk about how to create unstoppable motivation. First, let’s talk about what motivation actually is. So if you look up the Google definition of motivation, it says the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. So motivation is a desire hire to do something. That’s it. And motivation or desire is a feeling.

All right. Now, if you have been paying attention here on the podcast at all, I talk a lot about feelings. Let’s talk about our feelings. I talk about how our feelings our emotions are always created by our thoughts. Okay?

So if you’re talking about motivation, as a feeling, because it is created by your thoughts. You don’t find motivation outside of yourself. You don’t get it by looking outside of yourself, you create motivation, with your mind with your thinking. So motivation is not something that’s outside of you. It’s not like somebody grants you motivation.

Motivation is not bestowed upon you by some, you know, Royal Majesty or whatever. Motivation is created by you. It’s 100%. An inside job. Okay, so I just want to make sure we understand this. First and foremost here, motivation is created by you. So you might see something that gets you motivated, hear something that gets you motivated, you might read motivational quotes, or listen to podcasts, listening to this podcast might get you motivated.

But I’m here to tell you something. It’s not because of the words you’re reading or the words you’re hearing. Because those words are just barked, right? They don’t mean anything until you decide they mean something for you. And all of us kind of get motivated a little differently.

Different things will motivate us, depending on where we’re coming from, what our goals are, and all this other stuff. So just know that when you maybe I get motivated by watching documentaries on running, like these people that do these amazing feats, or even stuff like, what’s it called? Free Solo, if you guys haven’t seen this movie, this is crazy.

This guy climbed El Capitan, without any ropes or anything like that, like I would never ever do anything like that. But that is so motivating to me to see somebody do something that amazing, then I think, oh, I’m just gonna go out and run 26.2 miles, no big deal.

But that’s because I’m looking at what this person is doing. And I’m interpreting that with my own thoughts and feelings, I’m looking at it through my lens, my model of the world, and I’m deciding what I want that to mean to me. And I’m deciding that seeing somebody do something crazy, like scaling El Capitan, without any kind of ropes at all, is so huge and so crazy, that what I’m doing maybe running a 50k or something like that is no big deal.

Okay, so that’s what motivation is, it’s not something that’s out there. But what you see out there might, you know, get you it might spur something inside you it might get you start thinking about how this relates to you, or what it means to you, okay? You create your own motivation, so it is important to understand this.

Okay, but and I, but I get it, you know, a lot of us are gonna say, well, I don’t have any motivation, how do I create my own motivation? And that’s what we’re going to be talking about here. So the first thing I want you to do is this, I want you to start taking responsibility for creating your own motivation. Okay.

Instead of using phrases like I lost my mojo, or, you know, I’m not thinking, you know, I don’t, I don’t feel motivated. I just didn’t feel motivated to get a bit. I want you to change that thinking and change what you’re saying to yourself about this, change your language around it.

Maybe start saying things like, I’m not creating my own motivation, or I’m not thinking very much motivational thoughts right now. I want you to take responsibility for creating your own motivation.

Instead of asking something like, why have I lost my motivation? Because that’s a terrible question. It’s a terrible question because your brain will come up with all kinds of reasons why you’ve lost your motivation. But is this really doing you any good?

Now, here’s a better question to ask yourself. How can I create motivation for myself right now? What thoughts can I start thinking that are going to get me to feel motivated right now? Remember, motivation, it’s always an inside job. You taking responsibility for creating your own motivation is so, so powerful.

Because you can create motivation, when you don’t feel like you have any you can create it, you just have to look at your thoughts, you have to look at what you’re thinking. So my first tip for you, is to just take responsibility, take the responsibility and own it.

Know that this is your job to create your own motivation. It’s not anybody else’s job out there. Okay. So that’s my, my first tip is to take responsibility for your own motivation.

And then number two, practice thinking, motivating thoughts. What thoughts get you fired up when you think them? Think about that. I’m a big fan of journaling. So I write a lot. I do this for this reason, because when I can get all the stuff that’s swirling around in my head, and there’s a lot of it, by the way, there’s a lot of thoughts swirling around this head of mine.

But when I can get those out of my head and onto the page, I can look at them, when I can look at them. I have like a snapshot of what my brain looks like in this moment. Okay, this is a very powerful practice.

And if you’re not doing any kind of journaling, even if it’s just thought downloads, which is just dumping out all the garbage, all the whatever thinking your your is going on in your brain, just get it all on the page, even if it doesn’t make any sense, even if it’s like, you know, jumbled up and distorted or whatever.

Just get it all out there and look and see what thoughts keep reoccurring for you. It’s very, very powerful to do this. I actually encourage all my clients to journal, they journal, their food plan, they journal what they eat, they journal, their thoughts, and we talk about that stuff. Okay?

Now, you need to start looking at what you’re thinking regularly, and start thinking about what thoughts you’re thinking about your thoughts, right? So meta, you need to think about what thoughts get you motivated. So for me, I think about thoughts like this, like, I am an example of what’s possible for others. This is my mission in life, right? This is like my calling.

And I talked about this. In the last podcast, I talked about being an example of what’s possible. I’m an example of what’s possible. That gets me motivated, that makes me feel like it likes that fire inside me. Right. Another thing that I like to think is that I can do hard things.

And I’ve done a lot of really hard things in the past, you know, I’ve overcome cancer, I’ve changed my health, I was very overweight, and very sick. And I completely changed my life. For the better. I quit drinking. You know, I drank too much. It wasn’t working for me. And I quit that. I quit smoking some years ago, that was hard to do.

So, of course, I’ve done other hard things like, gone through divorce, I’ve, you know, run 50 miles, I’ve run 100 miles, I’ve done an Ironman, I do hard things, I actually choose to do hard things now. Because I know that it’s in that process of doing the hard things that I become more and that I grow.

Thinking that thought right there, ‘I do hard things’, this gets me fired up, it really does. Another thought that I have is just that I got this. You know, this is one of my favorite things to tell my clients is like you got this because I want them to know that they do have it.

Like we all got this we can do this we can get through whatever it is going on. So thinking I got this gives me that feeling of like power and confidence. I got this, I can do this. That gets me motivated. Another one is that this is how I become more. Whatever it is I’m going through right now whatever this tough thing is that I’m looking at, this is how I become more.

This is the way that gets me really fired up so these are some thoughts that I have that I practice on a regular basis. Whenever I need some motivation. These are very meaningful to me. They’re very personal to me and very meaningful for me.

Now I have other thoughts that get me motivated, I can fill a whole page with these thoughts. And I want to encourage you to do that, to do this exercise, I know you probably listen to these podcasts, maybe while you’re running, and you’re like, yeah, whatever, I’m just gonna listen. But I don’t want you to skip this one, I want you to do this writing exercise, it’s so powerful.

Because you’re gonna, you’re gonna use this later. And so this is how you do it, grab a notebook, you know, just grab a piece of notebook paper, whatever it is, give yourself 15 or 20 minutes. And then start thinking about all the thoughts that get you fired up, that like that fire inside you that get you feeling motivated, whatever that looks like for you.

And I want you to fill a whole page, right? I don’t know how many lines are on a typical notebook page, 50, whatever it is, fill up the page. And if you can’t, if you get stuck, at some point, put it down, come back to it. Anytime you have a motivating thought, throughout the day, add it to your list. Okay, this is a cool, cool thing to do.

Then what I want you to do, so you’re gonna have this page that’s just full of things that gets you fired up full of thoughts that you think that are personal to you meaningful to you that get you fired up, then what I want you to do is open up that notebook and read it every single day.

Start your day this way, make some coffee, have a seat. Light some candles, listen to some music, whatever you do, but just like pull it out and read it. Read those thoughts every single day. Because when you do this, you start practicing thinking these thoughts, they become habit for you.

They become powerful for you, they become very motivational for you. Because they’re your thoughts. They’re in your words, there’s nothing more powerful than your own, your own ideas, your own thoughts, written in your own words, right? This really drills this stuff into your subconscious, right, and you start to create new thought patterns, new neural pathways, these become your automatic thoughts.

And you don’t have to, like, go out there searching for motivation anymore. Like you can create it simply by remembering these thoughts. I can just sit here and think about a thought like, I can do hard things. And this whole story, all these stories of what I’ve done in the past comes rushing back to me, and I’m immediately motivated. Right, super cool.

So you want to make these thoughts automatic, and the way you do it is by writing them down, and then reading them. Do it every day. We have a lot of automatic thoughts, wouldn’t you rather that they were these positive, encouraging motivating thoughts rather than the frustrating and defeating thoughts that we think most of the time, isn’t that crazy, we use our brains to create anxiety and stress and make ourselves frustrated and feel defeated.

We do this all the time with our brains, we have all these automatic thought patterns, these old patterns that we run through our brains just that are constantly keeping us stuck or making us feel terrible. You can change that. Okay, start creating new thought patterns. Just practice thinking new thoughts, okay?

These thought patterns will get ingrained into your subconscious and you’ll find yourself like never seeking motivation, okay, you’ll have it, you’ll be able to create it, you’ll be able to conjure it up whenever you want it. train your brain to do this. And you’ll have it whenever you need it. Okay, so that was my second suggestion, which is to practice thinking motivational thoughts.

Number three is to choose what you get better at. When you do the same things over and over and over again, you get better at them right when you practice that makes perfect, right? When you practice thinking motivating thoughts, you’ll get better at motivating yourself. Okay, this is just simple logic.

The problem though, like I was just kind of talking about, is that a lot of us don’t practice positive motivating thoughts. We practice negative, discouraging thoughts. So we’re constantly focused on maybe past failures, you know, oh, I’ve tried all these other diets. I just can’t do it. anything to lose weight, nothing ever works for me. And people beat themselves up for narrowing, and never having been able to do something like that, in the past never being able to lose weight in the past.

And what you want to do is choose things that you can get better at so that you can change your future. Okay, so let’s say, for example, you’ve given up eating sugar and flour, because you’re determined to, you know, get off the sugar wagon and, and really do something serious about your weight. And maybe you’re also doing some sort of intermittent fasting, right? These are things that are pretty common ways of losing weight.

So let’s say you’ve just quit snacking between meals, that’s a pretty easy way to do some kind of intermittent fasting, right, just give up snacks between meals. All right, so you’re not eating sugar, and flour, and you’re not eating snacks, and it’s like three o’clock in the afternoon. And you’re not gonna be eating dinner till like six o’clock.

And so you’re feeling a little urge to eat something, maybe you’re at work, and you know, there’s doughnuts in the break room, or you just find yourself, maybe you’re working from home, and you’re standing there with the pantry doors open and drooling over all the cookies that are in the pantry, okay.

So you have a choice in that moment, right, you can give in to that urge and eat the doughnut, or eat cookies, right. And when you give in to that urge, you get better at giving in to the urge, right? Every time you give in to an urge like that, against your better judgment, you get better at giving in, that you’re training yourself, that the way you’re going to deal with this urge to eat some sugar is to eat sugar.

And the crazy thing is, is that it feels terrible. Because you know, you’re not supposed to be doing that you’re like, I don’t want to eat this, I can’t believe I’m eating this doughnut right now. And this is very demotivating, you will feel incredibly demotivated when you continue to take action that you know is not moving you closer to your goals. Right?

You’re getting better at demotivating yourself if and when you do this, okay? So instead of training your brain to constantly give in to the urge, because that’s what you’re gonna get better at, you want to do the alternative, you want to do the opposite, you want to do something that will motivate you.

And that is to feel that urge, that feeling, allow it to be there and don’t do anything about it. Because here’s the thing, you won’t die, you’re going to be eating a meal in a couple of hours. So the answer is just don’t do anything about it. When you do this, you get better at allowing urges without giving into them.

When you get better at this, this is incredibly motivating for you. Because you get better at sticking to your plan. This becomes your new habit sticking to your plan is like the key to this whole deal. Right? If you’re trying to lose weight, you know what to do. Most of all, most of us know what to do. If you don’t ask me, I’ll tell you.

But sticking to your plan is like the main part of this, right? Like you just got to plan on what you’re going to eat and when and then stick to the plan. Right? It seems so simple. But it was very hard. It’s very challenging for a lot of people.

But when you do that, when you get better at sticking to your plan, you build all this confidence in yourself. You have your own back, you’re honoring your commitments to yourself, and it creates this like motivational flywheel that starts turning because you start making progress towards your goals.

You can see the scale going down, you’re like losing weight, because you’re sticking to your plan. And then you feel better about yourself. And then you’re losing some more weight. And then you’re honoring your commitments again and you’re sticking to your plan and like you just keep this motivation flywheel turning, it feels really good.

So you make a commitment to yourself. You honor it no matter what. And you build this self confidence and trust and you create this motivation that just even when things get hard and challenging, you’ve got it like you’ve got your own back. Okay, incredibly motivating. Choose what you get better at, get better at the things that are moving you towards your goal. This is Very, very motivating.

The other thing that I want to talk about so that was number three, to choose what you get better at and the number four tip for creating unstoppable motivation is remember your Why. Why are you doing this? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to run that marathon? Why is this important to you? This is such a great question. It’s such a powerful question.

But most people don’t really take the time to think about this. Or maybe they just don’t really have a good reason why. Your reason why you’re doing something, especially when you’re trying to accomplish a big goal is incredibly important. Your reason why has to be big and bold and epic and powerful. It has to make you feel something inside a powerful why is extremely motivating. Right?

A powerful why is what gets you out of bed on a very cold Saturday morning to go outside and run in the cold and the rain. Right? A powerful why is what keeps you sticking to your food plan, even when there’s doughnuts in the break room, even when there’s cookies in the pantry. So why is this important to you?

Think about this, this is a really good question. I have two why’s. And I’m going to share these with you here. The first why is this: I used to be very overweight, very sick, very unhealthy, I had cancer, I was drinking too much. I just kind of talked about this, right, but my life was a hot mess, I was going through a divorce.

And I have this picture of myself actually I saw a picture of myself with my shirt off. And very overweight. And I was like oh my god, who is that person? And so I have this image of what I used to look like.

And I can remember what I used to feel like, and how sick I was and how unhealthy I was, and how I just was like, I was miserable all the time. I never want to go back to being that guy again. This is very motivating for me.

And this is what we call an away motivation. I am very, very motivated to move away from that old version of myself. I’m very motivated to never want to be that person. Again. I’m propelled away from who I used to be. Okay, so that is one of my why’s. I am motivated away from that gross, terrible version of myself that I never want to be again.

Okay, so when I started to gain a couple of pounds or something like that, and this was this, this was powerful for me earlier this year, when I began, you know, really seriously about losing the weight for the last time, I had gained 40 pounds. And I was like very, very close to the 200 pound mark again, like I was at 199 or something like that. 198, 199.

And I was like, Oh my God, I was getting close to that other version of myself at my heaviest. I think it was like 230. But getting into the two hundreds again was like, nope, I am not going there again. So that was very, very motivating for me. I do not want to be that version of myself again.

And I have another why. My other why is who I want to be in the future. So I’m determined to become the strongest and most healthy version of myself yet. This is one of the reasons why I’m here talking to you right now. This is why I created Running Lean, and the podcast and my programs.

That’s why I’m sharing all this stuff with you. Because I want to become more. I’m becoming this amazing, healthy, strong, new person, the most badass version of myself yet. This is who I want to become, I have this very clear picture of who I want to be.

So I have a clear picture of who I don’t want to be from my past. And I want to move away from that. And I have this very clear picture of who I do want to be in my future. And I’m moving toward that. That’s called toward motivation. Right? I’m moving toward the vision that I have for my future self.

Now here’s something that is very cool when you have both of these types of motivation. When you have an away motivation and a toward motivation, this is like rocket fuel. This is how you create unstoppable, powerful motivation for yourself. Because you’re propelled away from one thing and you’re propelled towards something else. Very, very powerful. Okay?

So I want you to think about this. Why are you doing this? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to run that marathon? Why is this important to you? Is there something you’re moving away from or maybe who you used to be? Or are you afraid, you know, of who you’ll never become?

Or is there some goal that you’re moving toward? What is it for you? It’s different for all of us, right? But what is it that’s going to get you out of bed on a cold Saturday morning, when you really, really don’t feel like because it has to be something powerful that makes you feel something inside? Right?

When you remember your why when you have a very powerful why you create this unstoppable motivation for yourself. Okay, so think about that. Think about what it is that is moving you What are you moving away from? What are you moving toward? And remember that every single day?

All right, so that was number four, remembering your why. Number five is this, what would your future self tell you right now? So think about that future version of yourself, that person that you want to become? You know, let’s say you want to lose 40 pounds. And you have this vision of your future self. Right, you’ve reached your goal, you’re at your ideal weight.

Now, think about how you got there. How did you do it? Did you get there by giving up on yourself when things got hard? Did you get there by sleeping in on Saturday mornings? Did you get there by standing in front of the pantry and eating all the cookies? Probably not.

I mean, if you did, that’s awesome, but probably not. Think about that future version of you. And think about that future version of you. giving you advice today. What would you say to yourself right now? You should probably just quit, you’ll never lose the weight. Yeah, what makes you think you can run a marathon? You know, you’ve never been able to do that before? No, this is not what your future self would say to you. This is what we say to ourselves in the present, though, right? We say these things to ourselves all the time. It’s terrible, very motivating.

What would your future self who’s already achieved the goal say to you probably say something like, Hey, I know what you’re doing right now feels hard. And I know it feels like it may not be working. But I promise you, if you stick to it, if you get through this, you aren’t going to be so amazed at what you can accomplish, you’re going to feel so confident, you’re going to feel so much love for yourself, I know you can do this, you have to trust me, I’ve already done it. I’m already there.

That’s what your future self needs to be saying to you right now. Think about it like this. There’s like, two versions of you. Okay, there’s the one in the future, who’s already done it right, already reached the goal, already lost the weight, lost the 40 pounds. Then there’s the current version of you standing in front of the pantry whose not really sure if they can do it or not.

You’re not sure if you have what it takes in this moment. Right. So there’s the future you already there. And there’s current you wondering if you should eat the cookies or not? Here’s the question you should ask yourself. What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between who you are now? And who you want to be? What’s the difference in your thinking between where you are right now? And what got you there? What’s the difference in the actions that you’re taking? Or not taking between now? And then? Because there’s that version of you that’s already hit the goal way, right?

Then there’s this version of you that’s like wondering if eating the cookies is going to get you there. What you do in this moment, can be decided by asking yourself honestly, what’s the difference? What would future me do in this moment? I know that sounds a little weird, but it is very powerful little brain trick because what you’re doing is you’re going out into the future.

You’ve already accomplished this goal. And you’re looking back at where you are right now. Like through the lens of your own experiences and stuff. And you can actually motivate yourself to do what it takes, even though it’s hard by just thinking about the future, and how you accomplish this. Okay, so what would the future you tell you right now? So, that was number five.

And then the last thing I want to say is this, this is number six, this is my last tip for creating unstoppable motivation. And this may be trademarked by Nike, but just do it. That’s not really what I want to say. What I want to say is just start. So sometimes you just don’t feel motivated to do something. I experienced this quite a bit.

When it’s cold and raining outside, and I’ve got like an eight mile run on my schedule. And I’m looking outside, I’m looking at my weather app, I’m looking at the radar. And the rain just keeps coming and just keeps coming. And it’s still only, you know, 34 degrees. And I’m like, I don’t feel like doing this, I don’t feel like going out and running in the cold and the rain.

So here’s what I do, I just start, I put on my running shoes, I put on my rain jacket. And I head out the door. And as I’m walking down the stairs of my building here, and I’m starting my watch, and I’m heading outside and it’s raining on me, I still don’t feel motivated. But you know what happens, it’s kind of crazy.

I’ll start running. And after a mile or two, the motivation sort of starts creeping in. And pretty soon I’m feeling super motivated. I’ve created my own motivation by just starting. So that’s something I just want to encourage you to do. And we can apply the same thing for you know, if you’re if you’re conflicted about eating or, or not sticking to your plan.

Sometimes you don’t feel like sticking to your plan. But I promise you, if you just do what it takes, in the moment, just start. And sometimes this means like, I’m just going to start, you know, a new way of eating, I’m going to change my diet. And you may not feel motivated to do it. But when you start and you stick to it for a couple of days, even the motivation will come.

Just getting started often is the thing that propels you into that place of feeling motivated of creating your own motivation. Okay. So remember, motivation is always an inside job, you’re creating it every day, if you want it. Okay, don’t look outside for motivation. Look inside, create the motivation that you need. And you’ll always have it because you can’t rely on outside motivation.

When you do that, when you rely on other people or other things to get you motivated, they’re going to be let down a lot of times, because you can’t rely on them or those things that are outside of you. To keep you motivated when you don’t feel like it, create your own motivation and carry it with you all the time.

You got this, my friends, I want to remind you to think about making 2021 tour year. Join the monthly coaching group and I want to help you become the badass runner that you’ve always wanted to be that lean fat burning machine.

Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and I hope you’ll join the monthly coaching group. Lots of love to each and every one of you, my friends, keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’ve tried to lose weight by running miles and miles or starving yourself and you’ve had zero results, you are not alone. This model of weight loss is broken. It’s never worked, and it has to be replaced. That’s why I created a powerful new training just for you called How to Become a lien running machine. You’ll discover why running more and eating less does not work for weight loss and you’ll learn the three secrets to losing weight and keeping it off for good to get this free training right now just go to runningleanpodcast.com/lean and learn how you can become lean running machine.