Are you having trouble staying motivated to keep to an exercise routine? Well, you’re not alone. Whether you’re burned out from a job, weary from caring for a baby, afraid to start, or just plain lazy, motivation is quickly lost when life becomes rough or you don’t work at it on a regular basis.
Every February, how many new year’s resolutions did you fail after promising yourself to stick to an exercise routine?
There are a variety of reasons why you can violate your commitments to yourself, and you’ll learn 6 strategies to discover the fitness motivation you need to get back on track.
1. Link Exercise to Pleasure
Your subconscious will most likely associate exercise with an unpleasant event when you hear the word. Even more so if you do it on a regular basis. We are hardwired as humans to seek comfort and avoid suffering at all costs[1].
As you subject your body to the stress of exercise, you’ll be quick to identify it as a painful experience, especially if you don’t make it a habit or have any underlying goals in mind.
Fortunately, your mind has the ability to pick what gives you joy, and it all boils down to linking your objective to a cause and a good sensation.
Most of the time, people begin exercising without understanding the underlying motivation for doing so. ‘I’d like to lose weight.‘ Sure, but why do you want to lose weight in the first place? Perhaps you want to feel fantastic in your own skin, or powerful and healthy.
Those emotions are palpable.
All you have to do is establish and maintain a strong underlying good reason for your exercise program, and your mind will begin to record the pleasant sensations associated with your vision each time you exercise.
The more you experience positive thoughts about the objective you want to attain, the more effects you will notice, just like any habit. Every time you exercise, your mind will disguise the discomfort by focusing on your fitness objective, making exercise a more enjoyable experience.
So clearly identify, feel, and think about your ultimate fitness objective, and your mind will encourage you as you program it to achieve it.
2. Find What You Like
You may believe that exercising is running on a treadmill for 30 minutes to an hour three times a week until you’re drenched in perspiration.
Let’s face it, running on a treadmill isn’t exactly the most enthralling of workouts. Beneficial? Absolutely, but if you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel, I don’t blame you for lacking consistent drive.
That’s some people’s cup of tea, and if it’s their cup of tea, wonderful! However, if it isn’t yours, there are a plethora of alternative possibilities available to you.
If you want to discover the fitness motivation to truly start going, it’s critical that you enjoy what you’re doing. It’s possible that your issue is just a lack of awareness of the various methods your body may exercise.
To begin with, exercise should be enjoyable. If it isn’t, you’re restricting yourself to the incorrect type of activities.
There are hundreds of different sports and activities from which to select. Try a variety of exercise activities until you pick a handful that you enjoy the most.
3. Seek an Accountability Partner
When the only person you have to answer to is yourself, it’s easy to miss or skip an exercise.
If you’re cuddled in bed and prone to sloth, you’re not likely to wake up at 6 a.m. on a chilly wet day to exercise. Why? Because we’ve been conditioned to avoid discomfort if we’re not faced with a challenge.
That’s where having an accountability buddy or a personal trainer may help. It’s true that failing or displeasing others irritates the vast majority of individuals.
When you’ve made a commitment to show up and someone is waiting for you, the last thing you want to do is have to apologize for sleeping in. How’s that for incentive to get in shape?
4. Find a Role Model
Fitness can be difficult to maintain over a long period of time, yet many people do it effectively.
Looking up to a role model may be your key to fitness inspiration, whether you’re a novice who is afraid to get started or a regular who is trying to stay consistent.
If you have a goal in life that you truly want to attain, chances are it has already been done by someone else. Not always, but the majority of the time.
As a result, modeling someone in the fitness industry and checking off all the boxes you want to check might motivate you to keep coming up day after day.
You could find the success formula to keep you motivated and get the results you want to see by copying your successful daily habits and routines and incorporating them straight into your daily schedule.
It’s not often a lack of intention that keeps you from working out, but rather a bad plan and ineffective outcomes.
Seeing consistent results and modeling the correct person and method will almost likely raise your morale and keep you dedicated to working out.
5. Brush up Your Diet
Yes, you’re constantly told which meals are excellent and which are harmful to you and why you should experiment with dozens of different diets to feel better. While you do not need to follow a very restricted diet, you should keep track of the things you consume on a daily basis.
If you eat Doritos for snacks and order fast food for supper on a daily basis, you’re not going to feel fantastic in your own skin on a regular basis.
When you don’t feel good in your own skin, your self-esteem and energy levels fall to dangerously low levels. The end effect will be a decrease in exercise motivation, if not a full loss of drive.
As a result, including a variety of clean, healthy foods in your diet will assist in signaling the mitochondria in each of your cells to create more energy.
As a consequence, you’ll be healthier and more energetic. Fitness motivation will become much simpler to come by as you feel better and lighter in your body and mind.
6. Mix it Up
Have you ever noticed how creatures of habit we are?
Setting a routine for yourself may appeal to you since you are at ease with what you already know. That’s because there’s something about the uncertainty that makes you feel uneasy.
It’s natural for most people to be afraid of the unknown. [2] In reality, most of your everyday activities follow a predictable pattern, and your workout regimen is probably no exception.
When you become accustomed to a certain activity, your mind quickly memorizes it and activates your autopilot mode every time you exercise. As a consequence, you’re unlikely to encounter any fresh feelings of excitement or motivation.
…..And, because emotions govern our lives, we must be exposed to change and uncertainty in order to experience new good feelings.
As a result, if you’re bored or unmotivated, it’s most likely due to a lack of variety in your workout routine. As a result, attempt to vary your weekly workout routine. Once you’ve identified the things you enjoy, begin adding a couple of them into your weekly routine.
For example, if you’re used to running for 30 minutes every day, consider cutting it down to three times a week and including exercises like weight training, swimming, and/or yoga on the other days.
There are so many options!
If something becomes stale after a few months, switch things around. Modify the sequence and frequency of your workouts, or completely change the program and routines.
Choose whatever causes your mind to crave variety and novelty in your daily routine.
Takeaway
So there you have it: these six techniques will increase your exercise motivation and confidence, allowing you to achieve consistent results.
Begin to consider exercise as a blessing in the form of the ability to develop and create something amazing. Without an opposing to contrast against and be grateful for, the pleasures of life and exercise cannot be appreciated.
Remember that it’s perfectly natural to not feel like exercising on most days and to give up. However, you have complete control over your drive and commitment to do so.
So now is the moment to reclaim control of your thoughts and reclaim your most colorful self.
Are you all set?