Motivation is great when you have it. You wake up feeling good, you’re excited about getting in shape, and getting your workout in doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

The problem is that motivation doesn’t always show up when you need it.

There are going to be days when you’re tired. Work sucked. You didn’t sleep well. You’ve got a bunch of other things you need to get done, and sitting on the couch sounds a whole lot better than working out.

Those are the days when relying on motivation can get you into trouble.

I think a better approach is to use motivation to get yourself started, but don’t expect it to be the thing that keeps you going. At some point, commitment has to take over.

That’s why in the video I suggested giving yourself a simple challenge: commit to working out 10 times over the next 14 days.

The important word there is commit.

Don’t say you’re going to try to work out 10 times. Decide that you’re going to do it.

There’s nothing magical about 10 workouts or 14 days. I’m not saying that after two weeks you’re suddenly going to wake up with an unbreakable exercise habit. Research on habit formation actually suggests that the amount of time it takes for a behavior to start feeling automatic can vary quite a bit from person to person.

The point of the 14-day challenge is much simpler than that.

You’re trying to get some wins under your belt.

Every time you get up and work out when you didn’t really feel like doing it, you’ve proven to yourself that motivation wasn’t actually required. Do that enough times and you start building something much more useful: consistency.

And once you get through those first 14 days, don’t stop.

Commit to another two weeks.

Now you’ve got four weeks behind you. Then keep going.

This is where I think a streak can become pretty powerful. At the beginning, you’re trying to convince yourself to work out. But once you’ve been consistent for a while, the thought process can start to change.

Instead of:

“Do I feel like working out today?”

it becomes:

“I’ve been doing this consistently for four weeks. Do I really want to break that streak today?”

That’s a very different conversation to have with yourself.

There’s actually some research behind the idea of repeatedly performing an activity until it becomes more automatic. Habit research has found that repeating behaviors in consistent situations can strengthen the association between the situation and the behavior. Over time, you may need less conscious effort to initiate it.

That’s one reason it can also help to connect your workouts to something that already happens regularly in your life.

Maybe you work out right after work. Maybe you walk after lunch. Maybe you train first thing in the morning. Maybe you exercise after dropping the kids off.

It doesn’t necessarily have to happen at exactly the same time every day. The idea is to give the workout a place in your normal life instead of constantly trying to figure out when you’re going to squeeze it in.

There’s also something I want to clarify about the 10-workout challenge.

Ten workouts doesn’t mean ten brutal workouts.

The goal isn’t to destroy yourself for two weeks just so you can say you completed the challenge.

A workout could be strength training one day and a good walk the next. What makes sense is going to depend on your current fitness level, your goals, what kind of exercise you’re doing, and how much recovery you need.

The challenge isn’t really about how hard you can exercise.

It’s about practicing the act of showing up.

That’s especially important if you’re getting back into fitness after being inconsistent for a while. It’s really easy to get excited, go way too hard for a week, get sore or burned out, and then disappear for the next three weeks.

I’d much rather see you put together a month of consistent, manageable workouts than have five incredible workouts followed by nothing.

And that’s really the bigger point I’m trying to make.

Motivation isn’t bad. It’s just unreliable.

When you’re motivated, take advantage of it. Have a great workout. Push yourself. Enjoy that feeling.

But on the days when motivation isn’t there, don’t automatically take that as a sign that you shouldn’t work out.

You already made the decision.

Show up.

Get the workout done.

Put another day on the streak.

Then do it again.

Eventually, the goal is for working out to stop being something you have to repeatedly convince yourself to do and start becoming something that’s simply part of your life.

And you don’t need to wait until you feel motivated to start building that.

You can start today.