You’ve observed yourself initially training a few times a week, then quickly progressing up to several times per week and all of a sudden are magically following seven different programs and rowing a 10k on your rest days. You stop seeing progress, feel sluggish, and immediately know it has to be your coach’s fault, so you immediately switch your seven training programs to a new program devoted to upper thoracular (not a real thing) momentum of the incline of your shoulder girdle because that is what must be stopping your progress!  Now the self-talk comes in. “I can't do this anymore.” “I’m not making enough progress.” “My coach and I aren’t on the same page.” “Why am I doing this to myself?”
 
The example may seem ridiculous, but this is a widespread training scenario that athletes go through in their beginning and intermediate stages of lifting. The big question is this: How do we avoid this from happening, stay motivated, and keep on the path?
 
The answer starts with shifting to a mindset of success, communicating regularly with your coach, identifying your short and long-term goals and measures of progress, and determining what your primary needle mover is—what is the most critical thing you need to do to drive consistent and continued progress toward your goals? It might be committing to a consistent training schedule, strengthening your relationship with your coach, following and trusting your actual program, or dealing with negative thoughts.
 
Be SMART
When defining your goals, start with what you’d like to accomplish next year and then break it down into smaller goals. Make sure they’re SMART goals, as defined by George T. Doran. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
 
For example, a SMART goal might be to hit a 300-lb. deadlift by the end of the year as opposed to “get stronger.” Or you could set a goal to hit the gym a certain number of days a week for the next 10 weeks.
 
Break It Up
 
It’s often useful to break your goal into smaller, incremental goals that’ll help you head towards your larger goal. This can give you structure and keep you motivated on your way towards a larger goal that may otherwise seem unattainable, and which could lead to the negative thoughts we discussed earlier.
 
Three Things Done Well
 
Another way to counter or prevent negative thinking is to log three things you did well during each training session. His can be anything, no matter how small or large: you got under the bar quickly, you devoted extra time for shoulder mobility, you hit consistent percentages and missed less often, you PRed in a local meet, or even, honestly, you showed up. Acknowledging and internalizing small successes along the way can strengthen those positive neural pathways in your brain and keep you in the game (pun intended) for the long run.
 
Examine Negative Thoughts
 
Another way to prevent getting stuck in that negativity bias loop is to examine the accuracy of your thought process. Referring back to the negative self-talk of “I’m not making enough progress,” and examine both sides of that thought. What are the things that show you that you haven’t made enough progress? Haven’t mastered linking your muscle-ups yet? Haven’t consistently reached your max snatch? Missed your best list at a local comp? Fair enough. Then, promptly, log what you HAVE made progress in: your ability to get under the bar, your shoulder stability, your PR in your overhead squat.  
 
Looking at both your accomplishments and where you want to go can give you a clearer picture of what’s going on, which can help you get re-centered and keep going. It completely shifts your mindset to be reminded that you are succeeding and you are headed in the right direction even if you lose sight of it once in a while.
 
Make sure to be compassionate with yourself. There will be days in your training your mind and heart will not be there, so neither will your body or your lifts. Your 85% max lift level may seem like 110% on some days. It’s okay. Nothing is wrong with you. Just roll with it and give yourself permission to have one of those days.
 
I still remember bombing out for the first time. Butch Curry came up to me in my horror and told me that today I had become a real lifter, which in typical Butch fashion was humorous. But in reality, it was a profound statement from someone who had been there and seen it all. It is going to happen. You are going to face difficult and awful training sessions and meets, and, as your lifting progresses forward, it’s going to happen more and more often, and it will become more and more frustrating.
 
After bombing out, I had to look at my progress from my last four meets and really analyze if I was a failure, falling off track, etc. What I found what I had consistent progress up to this point, progress that had already put me on the road to nationals, so this meet was simply a bump in the road I could write off as a learning experience.
 
Help Them Help You
 
“My coach and I aren’t on the same page.” Don’t sit with that. Instead, keep that open line of communication with your coach and tell them where you’re at. Don’t keep it in and passively follow what you’re being told. Your coach needs to be able to check in with you so that they can correctly align with your training needs that day. They need to be able to hold that confidence for you on those days you’re not able to for yourself. They may even give you that space to talk about whatever is going on. They are a coach for a reason, to help others succeed not only in the gym but also in life.
 
My biggest mistake in my lifting career was switching my lifting program to another and then yet another not a long time later. I was blinded by not being able to see how good my results actually were and had fallen into the trap of thinking my results could come faster by superstar coaches who seemed to have the “magic program.” My results plummeted for almost a full year before I realized the mistake I had made.
 
Trust the process, trust your coach, follow your program, and take a good long look at your last 12 months of progress before you make a switch. Have you made consistent increases on your lifts? Are you percentages of lifts made going up? Can you hit higher and higher percentages regularly and easily?
 
Go Deep
 
No, not just in your squat. Referring back to the “why am I doing this to myself” meltdown earlier, getting below the surface of the actual reason behind why you want to obtain that goal makes it a lot more meaningful, thus a lot more likely to stay motivated in following through.
 
When you’re feeling negative or wondering, “Why am I doing this to myself?” explore what’s below the surface. This can often unlock a very important value you hold for yourself, whether that’s commitment, challenging yourself in order to grow, respecting your body through living a healthy lifestyle, or serving as a role model for your kid.  Identifying your deeper purpose or “why” can help you understand your motivation and accomplish your goal.
 
I had not really and fully understood this to a deep enough level until my training partner injured her knee and couldn’t lift for more than a year. I thought I was lifting to make gains, to be on the national stage, to be a champion. But I was really doing it because I enjoyed the daily interaction with my training partner, I enjoyed the chance to give each other a hard time in our sessions, I enjoyed having someone to sweat right next to me and to try and outperform me in our daily competitions. (We would have plank competitions, and I would literally quit even a second after I had beat her, and vice versa.)
 
Bombing out didn’t bother me after a while, bad training days didn’t hurt me, missing a few lifts was okay, but when I lost my training partner, my willingness and excitement to lift fizzled and my progress stalled. I just didn’t care anymore.
 
When I look at my why, I realized that I enjoyed the interaction and the time I got to spend with people who made lifting fun and exciting, and that built my love for the game. That’s what made it worth it. It took not having a training partner anymore to realize I just didn’t want to do it by myself.
 
 
To get below the surface, ask yourself this repeatable question until you can’t go any deeper with it: If I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
Say your goal is to work out more. Ask yourself, if I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
“Because I want to lose weight.”
 
If I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
“Then I would be in better physical shape.”
 
If I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
“My health is important to me, I want to be around for others, and it would mean I worked hard internally to achieve something.”
 
If I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
“Because then I just proved to myself that I could actually accomplish something in my life, normally I feel like I’m not good enough.”
 
If I can obtain that, then why would that be important?
 
“It would mean that I am good enough, that I am worth it.”
 
See what you did there? You just made the goal about something far deeper than just wanting to work out to lose weight. This can be an extremely powerful tool in keeping your motivation intact through any goal you set for yourself because it brings up the deeper feels from going beneath the surface. 
 
You matter, your training goals matter, and your coach can help set you up for success. The rest comes from your execution. Trust them, trust yourself, and trust the process.