What to do after a motivational training?

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You probably have gone through some trainings, after which your motivation is up and you’re ready to move the mountains. That’s very good and that’s what we need, but you’ve probably noticed that motivation is not permanent. Before the training, there was no motivation, after the training there was too much of it and you can be sure that sooner or later the motivation will fade again. I like Zig Ziglar’s saying, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” So in order to stay motivated, we have to motivate ourselves every day, which is quite a difficult task. But what if you have just taken a great training, you received a tremendous amount of motivation and new knowledge and you want to put this to use?

In order to make most of this strong, valuable emotion, it must be used to create habits. Habits are automatic activities that do not require motivation. By creating them, you will ensure that the knowledge you have learned is used for longer periods and even in difficult times.

Create habits to progress successfully even when the motivation is low.

You may have written down some of the activities that you are going to start doing in order to take your life to a whole new level. This is great! Start doing them, but also use the momentum you have to figure out what you can do if you don’t have the opportunity or the will to do the new behaviours the same way in the future. Divide your activities into small parts and decide what will be the smallest step that you are able to take every day no matter what. If you can’t go to work out for an entire hour, what do you do instead to keep the habit? Do not skip this activity completely, for example, make a few small movements within 30 seconds. Stretch yourself, put on your sneakers for a moment and take off again. If you don’t do it at all it won’t become a habit for you. Do this every day (no matter how small of a step it is) and celebrate your achievement. Don’t be sad or shocked that you couldn’t focus on the new activities for an hour today. Be happy you did something and feel proud that you didn’t give up completely.

Prepare yourself for a drop in motivation and create a plan B.

Select 2-3 thoughts (do not try to do everything at once, come back to other things later) that most affected you during this training and figure out how you could apply them in your life. Not just to deal with them for a few weeks and then forget them, but to make them habits. Turn them into automatic activities and do them every day for the rest of your life. Start with as little things as possible, and when they become simple and automatic for you, take the next step. With this gradual development, you can be sure that you are getting better day by day and avoiding major fluctuations in your development path.

Develop yourself step by step and don’t rely only on motivation.

Having been on a lot of trainings myself, I have seen how much motivation is actually wasted if we do not have a plan for how to turn things into action, and how to get things going when motivation is fading. I recommend that you take the momentum and apply it to your habits. To learn more about creating habits, check out the other posts in this blog.