So I’ve been seeing tons of people asking for/sending “hatemail” to themselves and other weight loss blogs to “motivate them.” Some of you may be wondering why even though you get 10 or 20 of these “motivational messages” a day, you are not progressing on your weight loss journey. I’ll tell you why.
1. Negativity = Negative Results
It may seem like a great motivator at first - everyone is telling you how gross you are, you believe them, so you get your ass to the gym or put down the cake right? Wrong. This is not motivation. This is a trick. Negative thoughts will produce negative results. The best way to explain this theory is to compare it to alcohol. When drinking, you first feel high on life, happy, hugging and dancing with everyone you see, saying flirty things and feeling on top of the world. But alcohol, just like negative thoughts, is really a depressant. This means the effect alcohol will have on your brain after the buzz, will leave you feeling depressed. The same goes for these messages! First you think YES I NEED TO CHANGE THIS NOW. But then, as the negativity reappears in your ask box, it also appears without the internet. Your negative thoughts will end up overpowering the motivation in the end, just like the depressant side-affects in alcohol over power the buzz.
2. It’s super short-term motivation
The motivation from negativity will only last for a little while since it is not coming directly from your heart and brain. You need rationality, processing, managing, and budgeting skills that are straight from your thoughts and feelings for your motivation to be long lasting and true. If your only goal is to stop feeling “fat and ugly” instead of being “healthy and beautiful”, it will die out because the results go and come as quick as those thoughts do. Focus on positive long-term motivational thoughts such as “if I go to the gym everyday and eat right, I will be healthy and beautiful!” Instead of negative thoughts that have short-term results such as “this person on tumblr called me fat so I have to workout today to prove I’m not.” What happens after you’ve proved it to the stranger online? Nothing. There is small gratification but after the proof is sent to their inbox, it’s over. If it’s for you and only you with positive results being the motivation - it’ll be long-term and more effective.
Thank you guys for reading, I hope I’ve helped a little bit on this subject.
With love, T.