Anything can derail your motivation, like a bad night’s sleep, an unforeseen turn of events, or simply being too tired at the end of the day. Yet, there is hope. There are strategies you can use to help you find the motivation to exercise.
Key Takeaways
- Set Specific, Realistic Goals: Instead of vague aims like “getting in shape,” create clear, measurable targets, such as “running 30 minutes three times a week for the next 90 days.”
- Make Exercise Fun and Enjoyable: Choose activities you genuinely like, potentially with friends or family, so working out feels less like a chore and more like something you look forward to.
- Focus on Progress and Benefits: Track your achievements, celebrate small wins, and remind yourself of the immediate benefits, like improved mood and energy, rather than getting discouraged by the effort required.
Why Is It Hard To Stay Motivated To Exercise?
You can’t be too hard on yourself when you’re not motivated. There is a lot stacked against you. Evolutionary psychology suggests that humans are wired to conserve energy and minimize unnecessary exertion to survive. As a result, your natural inclination is to choose sedentary activities.
Your mind is also wired to seek immediate rewards. Bad habits are easy to make because they give you that short-term reward your brain craves. Unfortunately, exercise involves discomfort and delayed gratification, which makes the benefits not immediate.
There are no immediate consequences if you don’t exercise. So, it’s easy to prioritize other activities and procrastinate. Unfortunately, breaking and establishing habits can be difficult because it takes time to change your behavior. However, you can overcome these challenges. Let’s explore ways to rely less on willpower and help motivate yourself to exercise.
Clearly Define Your Goals
Goals, like losing weight, getting in shape, or being more healthy, are not well-defined and lack substance. Those goals are as specific as the most common New Year’s resolutions. What do those goals mean to you?
Defining goals will help you determine the necessary steps to reach your fitness goals. This will significantly increase your chances of achieving your goal and reduce your reliance on motivation to get there. For example, instead of getting in shape, a more specific goal would be “I want to run for 30 minutes three times a week in the next 90 days”.
Writing down your goals and how you will accomplish them will improve your chances of success. If you keep it brief and in bullet form, your future self may find it easier to get started, rather than relying on motivation to exercise or do something else important to help you reach your goal. If your goals are in a place where you can see them, it can help keep you motivated and on track.
Start Small And Build Momentum
Sometimes, the thought of working out for 30 to 60 minutes can crush your motivation. Never force yourself to exercise. Instead, start with a warm-up, gradually increase your intensity, and see where it goes. Even low-intensity exercise is exercise.
Your success depends on exercising consistently. Even if you exercise for only ten minutes, that’s a win and better than skipping your workout. In fact, once you’ve started exercising, you may find the motivation to keep going!
Focus On the Benefits, Not The Effort
It’s easy to focus on the effort and the hard work you must do. However, shifting your mindset to focus on the positive aspects can keep your inner critic at bay and motivate you to exercise.
Your overall goals may take weeks or months to accomplish. However, if you’re consistently exercising, you reap the benefits after every workout. For example, the rush of feel-good endorphins after exercise can improve your mood and energy levels throughout the day. Furthermore, exercise helps prevent certain diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. It can also help you control your weight. As long as you stay consistent and exercise, you will continue to benefit from it as you work toward your goals.
Who Needs Motivation When Exercise Is Fun
There is no shortage of advice on the best exercises that burn the most calories, gain the most muscle, and lose the most weight. You may have even talked to a personal trainer who crafted your ideal exercise routine. So, you resolve yourself to do those exercises since you want to reach your goals as fast as possible. However, you’ll never have fun if you force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy. As a result, you may rush through what you’re doing, take shortcuts, and possibly injure yourself.
How can you enjoy exercising if you don’t like what you’re doing? You can’t. If you don’t enjoy running, biking, playing tennis, or football, then don’t do them. No amount of motivation can get you to exercise if you don’t like your workouts. Instead, try something new. You never know what fun new activities you may discover.
Working out with friends or family can make exercising enjoyable and keep you accountable. Additionally, having a workout partner can help both of you maintain motivation while enjoying social interaction during exercise.
Mix Things Up
If you continue to do the same exercises each time, even if you enjoy them, your motivation will eventually wane. You’ll eventually become bored or burn out, stop exercising, and derail your fitness goals.
Even if you like your routine, it’s essential to mix things up to avoid performing the same motions that can lead to injury. Finding a balance of activities that you enjoy, which involves cardio, strength, and flexibility training, can keep things fresh and reduce your risk of injury.
Track Your Progress
You can’t remember everything. So, you’ll need to write them down somewhere to know if you’re progressing toward your goals. Tracking yourself can give you a bird’s-eye view of all your efforts. Not only will you see your progress, but you may also see early indicators of trouble, which will let you adjust your behaviors sooner rather than later. This can help nudge yourself in the right direction. As a result, tracking yourself can help you manage your goals.
Keeping a journal that tracks your exercise can be motivating. Furthermore, visualizing your success helps reinforce your commitment, motivation to exercise, resolve, and increases your chances of succeeding.
Stay Positive
Having the right mindset and staying positive will help maintain your motivation to exercise. If you don’t dwell on the challenges or obstacles, you’ll increase your chances of exercising and sticking with it. Instead, focus on your progress and the benefits of exercising. Every workout is a step in the right direction to a healthier and happier you.
Consistency Is Key
It’s important to stay consistent. Working out most days of the week will help reinforce a habit that won’t require much motivation to exercise. It will take some time before you establish an exercise habit. However, if you stay consistent and positive, you’ll get there.
Exercising is a lifelong activity. There is no finish line once you accomplish your goals. Instead, it should become an integral part of your life, which you use to maintain your physical and mental health.
Conclusion
You may be very motivated to exercise at the beginning of your journey. However, you shouldn’t rely on it to help you exercise consistently. Instead, set yourself up for success by carefully defining your goals and planning how to accomplish them.
You should find ways to rely less on motivation, such as doing activities you enjoy, finding a workout partner, and tracking your progress. However, don’t force yourself to exercise when you’re feeling off. Listen to your body and rest when you need to. You won’t lose the benefits of all your hard work by taking a day or two off to recover.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
