How to create good habits and develop the discipline to keep training in Muay Thai
There’s no doubt, motivation is a powerful force, but it will only take you so far.
Maybe you decided to train Muay Thai three days per week for fitness and self-defence purposes. Then, lockdown hit your area, and that knocked you for six.
But there’s always home training, right? Be honest. How long did you manage to keep that up?
You might think your problem is motivation. This is a common mistake.
If you still want to get fit and learn self-defence, you still know what you want to do and why you want to do it.
Lack of Motivation Isn’t the Problem
The real problem with motivation is that it relies too heavily on your mental state. And, like your emotions, your mental state can ebb and flow like the ocean tides.
The real engine of improvement is not motivation. It’s habit.
Habit will drive you to places inaccessible to mere motivation. Habit is motivation automated and on steroids.
To get your Muay Thai training back on track, start by building powerful habits.
Here’s how to do just that.
- Start Small
Walls are built one brick at a time. The harsh truth of substantial transformation is that if you try to do too much at once, you’ll set yourself up for defeat.
Minor changes are easier to automate, and they compound over time. From a cold start, get to class once a week and build from there.
- Stack Your Habits
One of the most effective ways to create a new habit is to tie it to an existing one. This helps reduce the friction and resistance that works against you.
Think of the shape of your existing day. When do you get up? Commute? Eat? Identify the shape of your day and slide your new habit into a suitable space in that pattern.
Tethering your new habit to an established one is a powerful way to anchor it quickly into your day.
- Choose the Middle Way
Buddhists teach the avoidance of extremes in self-indulgence and self-denial. But, you don’t have to be a devotee of the Buddha to learn something useful here.
There’s a viable balance to be found somewhere between degenerating into a Tim Tam-munching couch potato and evolving into a high-octane clone of Jocko Willink.
Choosing the middle path ensures you keep moving forward on your journey at a sustainable pace that also gives you the time to enjoy all that life has to offer.
Build Habits to Avoid Decision Fatigue
The real power of habit lies in that it frees us from the energy-sapping decision-making process.
Habit helps remove the resistance that waits to ambush us on our way to achieving our goals.
If motivation provides your why; let habit provide your how.
