The year is almost over, and being a man who enjoys order and organization, I decided that before the year was over that I would use the last few weeks to organize a workout and training plan for 2025. I always enjoyed the thought of having a well-structured exercise plan for the year that I could just open up and do everyday, so today I attempted to formulate that plan.

I sat down with my notebook and started asking myself questions about how I wanted to approach this effort. Soon enough I had a broad picture of how I would structure each month, but that was the problem, my plan was too broad.

I couldn’t decide on the specifics of the day and I started to get distracted by different ideas for the broad picture, and I ended up making very little progress.

I wanted the focus of my training plan to be integrating weight training with my martial arts practice and to concentrate on a different set of techniques every month so that I would really sharpen specific skills and then move on to the next set and so on.

I had so many different ideas that I couldn’t seem to make a simple plan. I over-complicated the process and began losing my motivation and allowing my attention to get distracted. Time started passing and I had little to show for it and I began to get discouraged.

I decided to persist in my efforts, and thought it a good idea to switch my tactics. In an attempt to hone in on specifics, I opened up my old training binder that had all the papers that my first martial arts teacher had given me. I flipped through the pages and, in a serendipitous way, happened upon the exact page that I needed to see at that moment.

“MOTION CREATES EMOTION. Just do it and you will feel like it- and, enjoy it.”

I circled a couple of things I wanted to do for January and then went outside and practiced them. As soon as I got moving my lethargy turned into excitement, my discouragement turned into motivation. I narrowed down what I wanted to do by doing it, and I was inspired to add other things to my plan.

I realized that my teacher was right, and I felt gratitude for his words. I was polarized to the emotional extremes of lethargy and discouragement when I was making my plan and it wasn’t working out like I thought it would. The use of action and motion took that emotion and polarized it to the other extreme which was excitement and motivation.

The Principle of Polarity teaches us that everything has its opposites, similar in nature, but differing in degree. I was operating on a low vibration when I was lackadaisically planning, and getting in motion raised my vibration. As a consequence, the inspiring emotions I felt when I started practicing polarized me to the higher vibration of the pole of the emotions I was experiencing.

Lethargy and excitement are similar in nature, yet different in degree. They are two ends of a pole of energy and by the law of the Principle, they cannot simultaneously exist. By raising my vibration by getting into motion, I did not kill out or destroy my lethargy. I simply raised it on the emotional scale to its polar opposite, excitement. It is the same concept with discouragement and motivation.

The next time you are feeling lethargic or discouraged, get yourself moving (literally) towards your goal. Raise your vibration with motion and transmute your emotion to the ones you desire: excitement and motivation.

If you don’t feel like going to the gym or going on a run, just get up and put on your workout clothes and step out the door and you’ll already start feeling better. Walk into the gym and you’ll start feeling good, and then pick up some weights and soon you’ll be feeling great. By the time you walk out you’ll be wondering why you were going to avoid working out in the first place.

I remember the feeling well from sports and martial arts. I wouldn’t want to go to practice because I knew it was going to be hard, and I would almost convince myself not to go. Somehow I’d get to practice and the beginning would suck, but about halfway through I would be enjoying myself and when it was all over I would be proud of myself and remember why I do what I do. Get motivated by getting in motion. That’s really all it takes.

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Related Reading:

The Virtue of Order

The Virtue of Industry

The Principle of Vibration