Let’s see, so far in your weight loss journey you have bought many “tools” that you thought would help you lose weight.  I can think of a treadmill, which was very expensive and a bike that is now sitting behind the shed. There was the big yellow ball, the weights, the racquetball equipment and the walking shoes.  I have the desire, but where is the ability to stick it out and make the jump to a healthier lifestyle?  Where is the life full of exercise and less body fat?  Where does my weight loss motivation go after I make the decision to lose weight?

What is missing is the motivation but what is motivation?  Let's take a moment and look at the definition of the word motivation and maybe discover why you lose it when you need it most.

motivation (noun)

1. the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action towards a desired goal; the reason for this action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; "we did not understand his motivation"; "he acted with the best of motives"
2. the condition of being motivated; "his motivation was at a high level"
3. the act of motivating; providing incentive

A simple textbook definition of the word motivation falls far short of what you need to get you thorough the day when everything you see you want to eat. Just knowing what the word means will not be enough to bridge the gap between diet and deprivation. Just knowing the definition is not enough to carry you through those moments that add up to you failing to achieve the weight loss you think you so badly desire.

On a more personal level, motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion.  Motivation is having the desire and willingness to do something.  Motivation is the key to performance improvement.  Among the most basic means to achieving self-motivation is simply organizing one's life — time management, making to-do lists, filing papers, sorting belongings in storage, making distinctions between tasks to be accomplished and those that have been, and making those activities part of one's routine.  As vital as motivation is in conditioning one's movement toward success, it is not the only attitude needed in order to achieve. 

Having served active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1979 until 1988 I was in great shape .  Granted I was younger but it was more than youth.  Was it coercion? The most obvious form of motivation is coercion, where the avoidance of pain or other negative consequences has an immediate effect. Despite what many outsiders may think, the Marine Corps is a master at creating self motivation.  They spend the first few weeks destroying your self esteem and then resurrect it through your own desire to perform, to not let down your friends.  This is an exquisite form of self motivation. Self motivation is the ability to satisfy a desire, expectation, or goal without being influenced to do so by another person.  Self motivation is the key to a paradigm shift or behavior changes amongst individuals.  So, in short, self motivation is finding a way of transforming the energy within into energy without, allowing for one to accomplish difficult tasks, or express ideas more thoroughly.  In spite of enormous research, basic as well as applied, the subject of motivation is not clearly understood and more often than not, poorly practiced.

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No matter how many tools you have or how many health club memberships you maintain, without motivation you will not be able to achieve your weight loss goals.  This motivation must be born as something internal, the deisre to lose weight must be strong enough to taste.  You need to be able to take it from within and bring it out into your reality.  A suggestion is to not run out and spend money on anything related to weight loss equipment.  You do not need the equipment, you need the motivation.  Start small, park further from the Wal-Mart entrance.  Go for walks around your neighborhood.  The secret to weight loss is not the coolest sweat suits or the best treadmill.  The secret is motivation. 

It is really not a secret.  You just need to get up and get it done.

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