The Motivation Bubble

By Coach Meredyth El-Amine

You know what the motivation bubble is, right? That period of time when you are ready, willing, and able to get after your goal. It’s usually right there, at the beginning of your new or renewed efforts to start prioritizing your health and fitness. You feel compelled, excited maybe. You have drive and actually take several steps in the right direction. It feels like this could really be IT. The time you follow through with your plans to eat better and exercise more from now on. Forever.

Then, something happens and the bubble pops or disintegrates, whichever - it doesn’t really matter. The bubble is gone. Your sense of motivation has drifted away with the wind and hasn’t really identified a return date.

Now, you’re white knuckling it. You try to force yourself to “eat clean” or make the macros fit no matter the emotional, physical, or mental cost. You make it work no matter how difficult or forced it feels until one day, you don’t.

This is a classic result of black and white thinking. You find yourself, in time, thinking any manner of unhelpful thoughts, ultimately waiting for the next motivation bubble so you can, maybe, begin again.

I realize this isn’t everyone’s exact story. Sometimes the motivation actually lasts a long time. Sometimes you CAN keep going without motivation and do so happily. Sometimes you label the whole project “the wrong approach” and begin the search for something even more complex thinking it will do the trick.

No matter what, you’ll almost always continue to try SOMETHING because feeling good, feeling healthy, feeling capable and confident is important to you. You care about yourself and self-improvement is part of who you are as a person.

So next time you’re running low on motivation, instead of letting it derail you completely, try making some perfectly imperfect choices. Release the grip on “clean eating”, perfect exercise, exact macros, or whatever path you’re on.

First, notice the motivation - when it comes and when it goes. No judgment or panic. Tell yourself it’s part of the process and move on.

Continue to follow your plan for better health and fitness.

When something happens and you can’t follow your plan to xyz (literally anything you decided you would do) - PAUSE and create some space to think.

OPEN up the possibilities and PLAY with them in your mind. Make a mental list of all your options - get creative.

Then, PICK something that you’ve thought through (judgment free).


Here’s an example I come across a lot with my clients:

The client decides that she’ll start shopping every weekend to meal prep on Sundays. She figures that if everything is ready, she’ll have more success throughout the week sticking to her weight loss goal and having healthier foods at the ready. She starts off great, executing the plan happily. Then about 2-3 weeks later she has an event with friends on Saturday and feels super tired on Sunday. She’s faced with what looks like 2 options: 1) push herself to follow her shopping and prep plan even though she doesn’t want to get off the couch 2) forget her plan and wing it during the week. This is where I’d coach her to see past the 2 options that are keeping her stuck. (because it’s not reasonable to expect oneself to ignore exhaustion in favor of meal prep forever)

First, PAUSE, acknowledge what she’s feeling and thinking about shopping and prepping. She doesn’t want to do it. She wants to chill and get some rest.
Then OPEN up the possibilities: do a quick shopping trip and get mostly pre-made/frozen/easy to fix stuff, look up a meal delivery service and price out having it delivered, identify 1 easy thing to make in bulk and eat mostly that for the week, order a billion SweetGreen salads, online order the groceries for delivery and call a friend to come help her prep…
Then, play around with them - which ones are stupid expensive? Which ones are unappealing? what might work but isn’t exactly how she’d planned in the beginning? Order restaurant food on Monday but shop and prep for the rest of the week on Monday night?
Finally, PICK something that both honors where she is today and where she’d like to be in the future.


It doesn’t have to be perfect. It only has to be intentional.
You are naturally open.
You are naturally intelligent.
You have the ability to navigate any obstacles that come your way.
Lean into the possibilities.


Love, Coach Meredyth
@coach_meredyth
meredyth@withinnerstrength.com