 Workout motivation seems to be one of those eternal topics that is always having tons of videos and tons of content online. Because I mean obviously if you know that you want to reach a certain level of feeling and where you look but you can't get yourself to do it every day well then how are you going to have that dream body or that dream level of health and vitality that you want? So because discipline and getting inspired are evergreen topics I want to share what my current process is for staying motivated and inspired to work out. Hey guys Alex Hein, author of the book on Habits Master the Day. So I've included down below this video the first link is for a weekly email crash course on the simple daily rituals you can use to lose your next 20 pounds. So you can check it out right below this video. You'll also get an email every couple days on how exactly to go about doing that. Now the big problem as I see it in the fitness space is that when it comes to losing weight or staying disciplined usually only hear two things right you hear the first which is take it easy be gentle with yourself just do what you really enjoy and focus on your self-care and on the other side you hear the basically stop being a little baby get up at 4 56 a.m. and do your goddamn deadlifts every day and shut your mouth. But the problem is neither of those are really reality because most people even really successful people even really fit people do not get up at 4 56 a.m. to do their damn deadlifts right they find a time that works and they do it and for other people this infinite compassion thing is great but what if you don't feel like doing it ever you're just going to gain the 30 pounds or just get sick because you just keep eating sugar I think the most important thing is to find the process for the in-betweens and that's what I want to share here. So this FRC habit is really the main way I approach discipline and getting motivated these days because it's easy to know what to do at the extremes right like if you are successfully doing the discipline and grit thing every day then that's a piece of cake and if you are doing the infinite Buddha of compassion move at your own pace thing then that's great too but the problem is what happens if you're sleeping five hours a night because you have a new baby and you're having a lot of stress at work and you're having problems in your relationship like then what is this just shitty city or is there another solution so enter the FRC technique it's based off of this quote from Martin Luther King and it says if you can't fly then run if you can't run then walk if you can't walk then crawl but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward so I basically came up with like you know like a three-part strategy your three-part system based on where I am on the spectrum per day and that's the main thing that dictates what I'm doing in terms of exercise and not just you know this raw discipline thing every single day so fly the first one is basically my day usually looks like I'm fully rested I feel pretty good and I'm in a good mood so I'm ready to do something that's more intense when it comes to run my day is usually moderate energy kind of your average day I'm kind of meh we're a little bit tired by the end of the day and not like super jazzed up I'm when it comes to crawl the crawl days are when my energy is super low like less than a three out of ten I may be feeling depressed or anxious this is bland maybe I only slept for a few hours or there's like really something big going on in my life or it's a phase of my life that's just really really really rock bottom motivation so this is really different from this idea of just being massively disciplined which is great I mean if that's working for you keep doing it or versus not holding yourself accountable and letting yourself off maybe a little bit too easily so the in between is you have to tailor it to adjust it to each day just like hopefully you would adjust your diet to based on whether or not you're hungry or how you're going to be in your relationship based on the stress and the demands you just do your best that you can for that day same as if you're a parent same as if you're an entrepreneur you cannot actually physically go just as hard every single day because it's just not how you feel every single day so what does the FRC habit look like in terms of what I actually do daily so on the days where it's fly right I'm feeling great feeling like at least a seven out of ten or above on those days my workouts are typical high effort high intensity weightlifting or high intensity workouts like HIIT training like a 20 minute really intense yoga workout or a 20 minute really intense circuit training or HIIT training Tabata training even these days I very rarely do high intensity but mostly it just means because my default workout is lifting weights I just go harder essentially I'm willing to push those last few reps I'm willing to push myself a little bit closer to exhaustion and sweat heavier than the other days that I have on this spectrum or this game plan I can also involve things like going for a longer duration like over an hour it can involve things like playing a soccer match which is usually pretty tiring for me and so on and so forth now the second level run which is usually most of my average days often fall on that spectrum right so run meaning it's middle it's like meh like I'm tired I only slept six and a half hours I got off work I'm just like whatever like I let me sit on the couch for a sec let me get a snack for a sec right so it's kind of in the middle going towards the lower end and the philosophy the mindset that I used to stay motivated is I'm not going here to work out I'm going here to get a boost of energy by just getting my blood flowing and so that's really helpful because all my weights are primarily workouts with moderate intensity with moderate to heavy weight and then one or two days a week I do like a moderate intensity yoga class but if I'm like tired by the time I'm done with work I don't want to do any of them and so the mindset of I'm not going to work out all I'm doing is I'm going to get a boost of energy for the rest of the day my second wind is going to be all about just getting circulation going and then I'm just going to get the blood flowing I'm going to get woken up I'm going to feel good it's like my 6 p.m. cup of coffee for example and that mindset is usually enough to get myself back into the gym when I've been really really really avoiding it now the crawl ultimately I mean frequently what we're talking about is the crawl right because if it were easy to get yourself motivated you probably would not be watching this and if you're at the run or above then you're probably doing okay ish probably don't have major problems with health or your appearance for example but in the crawl the crawl can come from maybe you had a relationship fight or argument last night you were up till four and had to be up at seven for work your shot completely shot what are you going to do you're going to do a high intensity cycling workout like it's not happening not happening way more likely to have the high intensity ice cream eating workout so what do you do though I mean if it's a one-off thing that's fine oh what happens if you're in a phase of life that's like that what happens if you just have a new baby and you're up all throughout the night for a year two years I know parents like that what happens if it's a life crisis and somebody you know dies or you're the caretaker for an aging parent or someone that's in hospice care and every day you're just barely trying to get through the day then what you cannot exercise for two years cannot exercise for an indefinite period of time so what are you going to do now in those crawl phases obviously those are the most important because you the motivation and energy are the lowest it's like what do you do on the days where you don't want to do anything that determines what your life becomes and who you are because on the days where you feel good and life is great of course it's easy to stay motivated of course it's so easy to stay motivated because you feel good you feel well so on the crawl days I reduce it to something so simple the crawl days involve going for an hour walk with a podcast or walking the dogs in the woods could you not that is literally as simple as it is because literally if you are too exhausted to do anything to even engage in your life then going for a walk ironically it's so easy to get started but after like 40 minutes you feel really good like you feel really really energized you have way more energy you feel so much better from that so just by doing that you're still keeping yourself in the loop and you're doing what you know you need to do to feel well and afterwards you will feel well even if you're going through the toughest phase of your life or you just had a really bad night so I hope that helps you guys I know this is an evergreen problem and a very very important topic before you go again check the first link out there below it's for a free lose your next 10 pounds 10 to 20 pounds crash course you'll also get an email every couple days that's going to help you do that all right and before you go I have two related videos right on this over here