Motivational Mastery: Coming To Terms With Your Root Motives

A guest post by Rob of Fizzness Shizzness

Hollywood heroes are the kings and queens of motivational mastery. 

Motivated by some kind of tragedy, revenge, love, or something similar, this motivation will cause them to do unthinkable things to accomplish whatever they have set out to do.

Whether traveling across the globe to save a kidnapped child, karate-kicking their way to the top, or two dogs working together as a team to find their way back home, they are driven by something unwavering and constant.

Death, heartache, or failure be damned; their motives leave them no choice. They are compelled to move forward.

They must take action.

Hollywood writers figured out decades ago that for a plot to be a good one, there must be some driving factor that is so powerful to the characters on the screen that we, as viewers, buy into it.

We feel it and believe it. It motivates us on this side of the screen just as it does those who are on the other side.

We find ourselves admiring the courage, bravery, and pure grit of those we watch. We look up to them for persevering and pushing through.

We want to be like them. We want that kind of determination. We want to have what it takes to be a hero.

True Motivation Is The Weapon Of Choice For All Heroes

When we watch those types of movies, we get so caught up in the action and heroism of the characters that we don’t realize WHY they are taking these unusual (and often extreme) actions to reach their goal. 

These movie characters are doing what they do because they were presented with a motivation that was so personal and spoke to them at their core that they had no choice but to act.

Something was so important to them that they were willing to risk everything (sometimes even the entire world) to get what they needed.

I’m not sure Liam Neeson in the Taken movie series would have traveled across the world to rescue a random Uncle or a duck. His daughter was kidnapped, which created a motivation that left him no choice but to save her (and also go on a murderous rampage to do it).

I’m not so sure the karate kid Ralph Macchio wins the karate tournament without the giant chip on his shoulder from constantly moving from city to city, starting over each time, and getting bullied everywhere he went. 

Every character has a story like this, where their motivation, their true motivation, carries them to greatness.

Your Motives Will Determine Your Mindset

When it comes to health and fitness, your motivation can have just as much of an impact on your success as working out, or dieting does. 

Embracing incorrect or weak motives will lead to weak actions and shaky commitments. However, root motives can be the catalyst for a changed lifestyle for the rest of your years.

What’s the difference? What is a weak motive versus a root motive?

What Is A Weak Motive?

When I started my fitness journey over a decade ago, figuring out my motives was challenging. 

I tried to convince myself that “I wanted to do it so I could be around my grandkids someday” or “I just want to feel better.”

Both sounded good, but they didn't give me a spark to get me off the couch. And when I did muster up enough energy to get to the gym, my commitment was so sporadic that I saw no results and would just sort of…stop.

For me, they were weak motives, and I kind of knew it.

A weak motive is a burden that will weigh down your mindset to succeed AND your fitness progress. It’s like a car with basically no gas left. Yeah, it might start, but you’ll be lucky if it doesn’t leave you stranded shortly after that.

Weak motives have some truth to them; they aren’t total B.S.

But they are not the actual or root motives.

What Is A Root Motive?

A root motive is whatever motivation you have that creates significant action, the spark you cannot deny. 

Searching for and accepting your root motivation will be the key to your success with fitness and anything challenging. 

I realized that my root motives were based on ego, which was connected to being ignored by girls and bullied by boys when I was young. Even now, as a 45-year-old, I want to prove something to them. 

I want to prove something to everyone. I want them to want me, or I want them to want to be me. 

This is my root motivation. It’s not as prestigious as saying I want to be there for my family. It sounds pretty shallow. 

But, my root motivation is what it is. Once I accepted that at face value, it changed everything for me, and I couldn’t resist the spark.

Root motivations can be anything that causes a spark you can’t help by being motivated and forced into action. For many people, their family and/or their kids are their root motivation, and they use that to find courage and passion for achieving better lives.

Some just want to be able to tie their shoes without struggling too much. Others might want to increase their endurance just to be active. 

Some want to do it to attract a partner, start over after a divorce, get over being bullied, or want to become an Instagram model.

Weight loss, grandkids, six-pack washboard abs, etc. Your root motivation can be anything.

And whatever your root motive is, that’s what it is. 

Embrace it and use it as fuel for your fire.

The “I’ll Start When I’m Motivated” Trap

Forrest Gump ran across the USA five times. It took him over three years to do this. 

Do you remember how this famous movie moment began? 

Forrest Gump: Just felt like running (HD CLIP)

There wasn’t a motivational moment that seemed evident to the viewers.“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run.”

What started as a whim turned into a theatrical feat that seems implausible.

Forrest accomplished something unique based on a whim. He didn’t wait to be motivated to take action, and there was no explosive moment that forced his hand. He just…went.

Weak motives can derail your progress mentally, physically, and emotionally. It’s a self-told, half-believed white lie. 

But what can be even more of a threat to the improved life you’ve been dreaming of is waiting for the right motivation to fall into your lap.

Inaction is guaranteed to lead to one thing; nothing. 

Taking no action at all is a sign that you have not been able to find your root motivation and haven’t even been able to come up with a weak motive to at least get the ball rolling.

When I started my journey, I didn’t know why I was doing it, other than my wife had started her journey, and it was something I thought we could spend some time doing together. 

That wasn’t my root motivation, but it was enough to be me started.

As time went on, I weighed other motivation options, which all just felt empty. After being stubborn enough to stick with the “fitness thing,” I realized I had also been working on myself and trying to find out what I cared about regarding fitness. 

Once I found it, it changed my outlook. Now, my root motivation propels me to look for new fitness challenges and opportunities to overcome, over ten years from when I started.

I just completed the 75 Hard Challenge and followed up by forcing myself to run a 5k every day for 30 days.

I can’t help myself. My root motive won’t let me.

I didn’t start like that. Don’t wait for the right motivation to strike you before taking action.

Start with no gas in your tank. Take a risk. 

And keep asking yourself, “What is my root motivation? What do I REALLY care about?”

When you get your answer, buckle up because you just found the overdrive button that will lead to success.

Final Thoughts On Motivational Mastery

In 2016, several years after the Forrest Gump movie was released, a veterinarian from Liverpool, England, named Rob Pope decided to run across the US, similar to what Forrest did in the film. 

But that alone was not enough to move the needle. That would have been a weak motive and insufficient to put Rob into action. A cool reason, but not enough.

At this point, Rob worked 13-hour days, five days a week. He wasn’t happy and wanted out. 

Still, this was not enough of a motive to create the spark. Rob’s root motive was created over a decade earlier, in 2002, and his mom died. 

When Rob was younger, he loved to run, and his mom would take him to the races and marathons when he was a bit older. She was a part of his running team and always had been. 

When she passed away, she asked him to make a promise: “Do one thing in your life that makes a difference.”

That was his spark.

He crossed America five times, just as Forrest did.

You Are Not Alone On This Journey

Sometimes finding any motivation can be a tough task, let alone finding the root motivation and that spark. 

At some point during everyone’s fitness journey, they rely on others to help pick up the motivational slack when we seem to be running low. This could be in the form of friends, the local fitness community, or through partnering with a coach to help keep your mind and your body on target, even when you may not feel up to the task. 

Author Bio

Rob is a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Nutrition Coach through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and is the founder of the website Fizzness Shizzness.  He encourages and empowers health and fitness lifestyles in those who want to live healthier and fuller lives after 30.