Having Trouble Getting Motivated To Exercise? Here Are Some Tips.
It’s not easy to stick to an exercise program. If you have a hard time staying motivated to exercise, here are some simple things you can do.
"I'm not motivated enough"
I talk to a lot of people who have good intentions when it comes to exercise. They know it’s important for them, they want to be active, but despite their best efforts they just can’t seem to get themselves off the couch to do it. Many of them think they simply don’t have enough motivation.
The first thing to understand about motivation is that it isn’t just something you have or you don’t, and it’s not something that’s outside of your control.
Getting and staying motivated to exercise is a skill that takes work and effort. There are some science-backed steps you can take to build the kind of motivation that lasts. I wrote about that in detail in this article.
While I highly recommend you read that article and start working on some longer-term strategies for building effective motivation, here are a few simple tips to get started in the meantime.
Start with a small, easy to achieve goal
The single most important thing you can do to set yourself up for success is to set one small, achievable goal at a time.
Aim to go for just one 10-minute walk at lunch or start with just one short and easy strength training session per week.
Make the behavior so easy you can’t say no. Once it’s done, you get a little win and sense of completion. You’ve achieved something! Just because it was small doesn’t make it less significant.
Achieving small goals consistently is much more important than aiming for big ones you can only achieve occasionally. I know it’s difficult to take the slow and steady route when it seems that small goals won’t be enough to get the results you’re looking for, but this is an essential first step for becoming a consistent exerciser.
Once you’re a consistent exerciser, you'll start to feel the positive effects of your new physical activity habits. Then you’ll be motivated to tackle larger and larger goals, and that’s when the physical results will come.
Focus on the immediate benefits
Exercise helps you live longer, reduces the risk of disease, and improves your physical appearance. Those are incredibly important benefits, but they take time, and you can't really feel them.
They are "future benefits", and unfortunately our brains are wired to prefer immediate benefits over future ones. This is a major reason why people who focus on physical appearance or even the health benefits of exercise often struggle to stick with it.
When it comes to motivating yourself to do something right now, you should focus on the short-term benefits that make you feel good right away.
Here are just a few of the immediate benefits of exercise:
More self-confidence and self-esteem
Those positive feelings can help you make a strong, motivational connection with exercise.
Learning to recognize and appreciate how good you feel after exercising (even if you don't love every minute of your workout) will help you stick to your program over time. You’ll start to feel a pull to exercise because your brain will crave those positive feelings. If you stick with it, you'll get the long-term benefits as well.
Make it enjoyable
When you enjoy something, you don’t really need to motivate yourself to do it. You want to do it.
If you can find a type of exercise you enjoy, or at least a situation in which you enjoy exercise, it’ll make it so much easier to get it done.
Don’t worry about the kind of exercise you think you should do, or what “counts” as exercise. If you’re moving and your heart rate is up a little, you’re exercising and you’re getting the benefits.
Try different classes, sports, dancing, gardening, walking, swimming, kayaking, whatever you like. Find a workout buddy or a group or gym that makes you feel at home. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something!
I hope these tips help you start getting motivated to exercise. If you need more help with motivation, contact me! Let’s talk about how I can help you achieve your goals.