Why train?  Why work hard?  Why get up before the sun and haul yourself to the gym/dojo/track/whatever and bust your ass while every sensible person sleeps?  Why stay after to work on weaknesses?  Why worry about recovery and work even at resting better?

As a trainer, it’s my job to motivate myself and to help people find their own motivation.  Part of that is determining what makes people want to pay money to endure temporary discomfort for the promise of potential long term gains.  To me, this breaks down into two broad categories, which I will call Fear and Love, mainly because of the reference to Machiavelli.  The nomenclature isn’t really important, except that the first is about avoidance of some issue, while the second is about the pursuit of something.

Love as a motivator:

One of the most common desires I see in the gym is the pure attempt to be better at something.  ”Chasing numbers” gets a bad rap sometimes, but adding 20lbs to your squat or dropping a minute off your 5K time can spur you to improvement.  For others it is vanity or lust: wanting to look good naked or look good enough to see other good looking people naked.  Sometimes it is the demonstration of excellence, virtuosity or just plain beating someone at something, a method that Crossfit actively recruits.  

Fear as a motivator:

On the other side, people can be pushed to avoid something: getting fat(ter), losing mobility or independence, losing the respect of others.    For my Muay Thai trainer it is rage: He feels a strong desire to hit strangers who are being assholes.  Realizing that this is anti-social, he channels that into hitting people that have agreed to be hit in a controlled fashion.   Fear of losing balances the love of winning in a competitive athlete.

Most people probably sample from both sides of the divide, but I think we also likely favor one over the other.  As an example, I have definitely felt the pull of wanting to look better, especially after the end of a serious relationship or the desire to beat others in a display of fitness (tough to really drink the Crossfit Koolaid without liking that particular taste).  On the flip side, deciding to get a Muay Thai fight has acted as a wonderful goad when I am lacking motivation.  Waking up at 6am means I often want to turn over and go back to sleep.  Then I think that there is someone out there who is training to be good enough to punch my face in and kick me till I piss blood.  That has been pretty effective at getting me out of bed.  

Both types have their downsides, love losing its attraction when the goal seems very far off, difficult to achieve or just plain not worth it.  Fear losing its effect after long exposure or after achieving a “good enough” result.  As is likely to be obvious by this point, I think we should seek balance between the two.  Find a fear that will act as a goad in a moment of weakness while also chasing a goal that will lead to a sense of achievement, rather than just a sense of comfort or safety.  As one type of motivation gets weak, switch to the other.  When you are having a really tough time, use both.  

Whatever you do, keep training.