How to build discipline in the gym
How to build discipline in your fitness journey
If you are about to start your bodybuilding/fitness journey, you are going to realise that you have a lot of motivation. You always want to train and keep getting better. You want to lift more weight. You want to stay in the gym for longer periods and so on. The truth is that this feeling will not last forever. This period of motivation stays for a short period of time and then goes away. So now the question is, if motivation goes away, how are you going to keep going? The answer is simple: discipline. You must understand that discipline is more important than motivation. Motivation comes and goes, but discipline is what stays, hence why you cannot rely on motivation because it is rarely there. What you must rely on, however, is discipline, because once you build it within you, it will never go. In this article I will teach you how to build discipline and maintain it through your journey.
1.The “why?”
A very important question to begin with is “why?” Why did you start this journey? Was it to look better? To compete and become a professional? To gain confidence? To change your life and make something good out of it? Whatever your reason is, you must always remember it especially through the hard times. The days when there is no motivation and you do not feel like training or doing any of the work, this is when you need to remember your why. By remembering your why, you will realise that it is not about how you feel nor is it about how motivated you are. You will realise that the work must be done anyway and therefore, whether you are motivated or not, the work will get done.
2.Accumulation
The next thing you must understand is the process of accumulation. One thing you will notice is that you will not see results straight away. When you finish your first gym session, you will not gain muscle immediately. When you do your first cardio session, you will not lose belly fat. It takes many sessions and weeks to start seeing results and a lot more sessions and weeks, maybe even months or years, to reach the result you are dreaming of. This is where the law of accumulation comes into play. The law of accumulation is the idea that the small little steps add up every day, and you keep gaining momentum, even when you are not seeing any result. What you must understand about the law of accumulation is that everything counts. Everything. The training sessions count. The healthy food that you eat every day counts. Your dedication towards training and improving yourself every day counts. Trying to perfect your form for all the exercises every session counts. It all adds up to the desired result that you want to reach. However, this does not just apply to the positive side of things, i.e., the training, the healthy food, etc. This also applies to bad habits, such as skipping training, eating junk food, or not training hard enough. All of these count as well. They accumulate overtime. This means that the goal here is to make sure that you accumulate a lot more positive things than negative ones to make sure the scale tips towards the favourable side, which will get you closer to your goals. You might be putting in the work every single day, but you’re not seeing any results. This is normal. You have to be sure that nothing goes unnoticed, all the work you’re putting in counts, and at some point, it will all make sense to you.
3.The tough days
Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced lifter, there are always tough days. There are days when you don’t feel like working out. You might not have the energy to train. Maybe you’re going through something at work that’s making you feel demotivated and not want to step foot inside the gym. Having this feeling is normal, but this is the real test. This is the test that will separate the dedicated, the disciplined, and the ones that are willing to give it their all from the rest. This is the test that will decide whether you deserve to get what you want or not. Pain is inevitable, which means there is a 100% chance that it will come for you. It will knock you down to the ground. This is exactly when you will start doubting yourself. You will start questioning whether you should continue or if it’s time to give up. But here’s the thing: greatness is forged in these exact moments. You must face the pain. You must get up when it knocks you down. It will keep knocking you down over and over, but you will only keep getting stronger as you keep getting back up. This is what greatness is about; it’s about chasing your dreams even when all the setbacks come your way. This is how discipline is built. Discipline is about showing up when every part of you wants to quit. It’s about getting the work done, even on the toughest days. When you don’t have any motivation, discipline is what comes into play. It’s what’s going to get you closer to your goal every day. This is why it is crucial to build discipline—it’s a long process, but it’s worthwhile and will pay off.
4.You vs. you
One of the biggest problems in bodybuilding and fitness is comparing yourself to others. It is always good to look at other people and be motivated by them. Whether it is being motivated by their work ethic, dedication, or even the level that they are at. What you’re not meant to do is compare yourself to anyone else, and this is simply because you are at a different stage. You could be less experienced; you could have a different goal; maybe you started training a year ago while they have been training for more than 5 years. It wouldn’t be fair to compare yourself to them and start criticizing yourself because you are not at their level. The person you must compare yourself to is you. That’s right. It is you vs. you. You need to compare yourself to the past version of yourself. Where are you now, and where were you back then? Did you improve in any way? What was the past version of yourself like, and what is your current self like? All of these are questions you should be asking yourself regularly. The aim is to always be better than the previous version of yourself. Every single day you have to wake up and be better than who you were yesterday. This is how progress is made over time, and this is how you change for the better over time: by constantly being 1% better every day, you guarantee a huge change and astonishing results as time goes on. So, stop comparing yourself to others, and start comparing yourself to yourself, because it is not you vs. them; it is you vs. you.
5.Wearing the right gear
Believe it or not, what you wear to your workouts has an impact on you and your mindset. That’s why you want to wear something with meaning, a gym t-shirt that speaks for itself and that represents you and what you stand for. Your wardrobe needs gym tops that motivate you and make you want to chase greatness and achieve what some might think is impossible.
This is what makes Greatest Achiever different. A gym wear brand that has meaning behind it. It makes you want to chase something you once thought was impossible. It reshapes your mindset. It makes you want to bring out the greatness within you.
