You know how it goes. You make a decision to take some massive action and suddenly you get a burst of motivation. You decide to lose the weight, leave the boyfriend, or get sober. And at first, it feels easy! It’s a no brainer! You’re not even craving that thing or person you left behind.

“Good Riddance!” You think.

It’s good to be free.

Except, have you ever broken up with a bad boyfriend, convinced it was the absolute right thing for you to do, only to find yourself a month later stalking his social media or asking friends if they’ve heard anything new? Maybe you even fantasize that you could go back in and test the waters? Kind of like an alcoholic who thinks maybe they’ll just try light beer.

Or, have you decided to drop 20 pounds ‘cause your SO DONE obsessing about your stomach so you blow off carbs like an industrial leaf blower in the dead of fall, only to find two weeks later you’re craving and caving. Someone pass the donuts, now dammit. Please.

Why does that happen?

Well, you’re not an emotional sadomasochist. You’re human.

And no matter how motivated you are to take action initially, the motivation will flee, fade, and lose it’s get up and go push.  Giving way to the “maybe just this once” mentality.

Here’s why.

People are only really motivated to do anything for two reasons. 1. To avoid pain. Or 2. To gain pleasure.

Most people are motivated by pain initially-That thing became so bad that you HAD to do something about it NOW.

But after time, that, what I call, PUSH of PAIN will lose its “ummmph”.

And that’s when you’ll promptly get off your so called pink cloud and succumb to the grey rain with the rest of us.

What the rest of us are doing is moving to phase two of staying motivated: finding our pleasure.

If you don’t find out WHY or what’s in it for you to keep going, you’ll stop when the hurt wears off.