December 10, 2022 in Mentality, Uncategorized

10 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Live a Fit Life

The number one thing people say when they don’t want to workout, is they don’t feel like it, basically saying they lack motivation.  If you had the motivation and drive to stay fit, you will never have a problem with staying in shape.  Love and motivation conquers all when it comes to accomplishing a goal.  So let’s discuss 10 different ways to get the motivation to exercise.

Write down 10 fitness goals

Writing down your goals, allows you to cement the purpose of you exercising, it also allows you to go back and read your goals.  Studies show that when a person writes down their goals, that person is one in a half times more likely to successfully accomplish that goal.  The more goals you write down the stronger the reason to accomplish the task.  Also there are many obstacles trying to prevent you from accomplishing your goals, so having multiple goals can help you recall one of the many goals, when you encounter different obstacles.  Another benefit from writing your goals down is a biological process called encoding, encoding means that things we perceived is stored in the part of our brain called the hippocampus and from the hippocampus the information is analyzed and stored in our long term memory.

Make a plan

After you write down your goals, write down a detailed plan.  The old saying goes “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail”. The saying is true because every goal requires steps and organization to accomplish your goals.  You need a plan to fit, your goals, in your schedule so you can fight against random things that come to distract you from your goals.  You should also have a general plan, like I am going to go to the gym 4 times a week, and a great way to hold yourself accountable is circle the days of the week that you go to the gym, and put that on your mirror, or somewhere you will always see it.  You should make a more detailed plan if you are going to make your own exercise routine.  But don’t take too long to make a plan, another old saying says “a promise delayed is a promise denied”.  You should create a plan within 1 or 2 days.

Close-up Of A Person’s Hand Writing Workout Plan In Checkered Pattern Notebook

Write down 5 reasons how these goals will benefit your life

You should write down why your goals benefit you because, you will be able to envision how your life will be better when you complete your goals.  Generating a picture in your mind of a better life, will help motivate you to fight for your goals.  When you have determined, and envisioned the benefits of living a more fit life, you need to force yourself to think and dwell on the benefits. You need to dwell on the benefits multiple times a day.  You need to put these benefits in the front of your brain, not the back of your brain. Even if you don’t fully believe that you will accomplish your fitness goal, or if the benefits of the goals don’t really excite you,  by forcing yourself to think about something, it reinforces the importance of it. When something is important and you dwell on the benefits of it you will eventually become more excited, and looking forward to accomplishing your goals.

Verbally repeat 2 of your main fitness goals to yourself multiple times daily

You need to pick two of your main fitness goals and repeat those goals to yourself out loud, multiple times daily.  When you hear something repeatedly for a period of time, it will incorporate itself into your life and you are more likely to move towards accomplishing those goals. The process is called the Illusory Truth Effect, which states that the repeated exposure to information, makes the person believe that information.  If you start believing in your goals, you will be much more likely to accomplish these goals. You should repeat the process multiple times everyday, because the more exposure the more engrained these goals will be in your psyche and behaviors.

Tell at least 5 people about your goals

People are afraid to tell others about their goals because they don’t want to be discouraged. But if a person is able to discourage you from your goals, then it will be extremely difficult for you to achieve your goals because there will be many life obstacles that will discourage you from your goals.  So telling people about your goals is great because it allows people to hold you accountable, and it gives people a chance to hold a conversation with you about your goals.  Telling people about your goals also can help motivate you because if you don’t accomplish the goals you may feel like you are letting someone down, so it will make you work harder.  You want to get support for your goals, but in some cases you’ll get opposition and you can use that opposition to prove those people wrong, which is also a great motivator.   

                                                    Know your weaknesses

Knowing your weakness is very important so you can avoid putting yourself in a situation that will expose your weakness.  Also it’s important to know your weakness because you can make your weakness stronger, you should be able to build your weakness up to a point where it’s at least at average strength.  When you are more comfortable with your weakness, it will remove a level of fear from your life, and you will be more motivated to accomplish your fitness goals.

Know your strength

You need to know your strength so you can lean on your strength and put yourself in situations where you can use your strength.  You should also make your strength, even stronger.  When you know your strength you will feel more confident, and you will be more easily motivated.  There are also parts of your fitness journey that you may be average, but if you focus on those areas, you can make them your strengths, you need to develop multiple strengths.

Spend at least 5 minutes everyday researching new information

Fitness and health can be complicated because the body is complicated.  But there are some basic information, that never changes and you should research this information.  You need to educate yourself about fitness, little by little.  You don’t need to know everything immediately but if you google and read an article or 2 for five minutes every day for 3 months you will know a great deal of information.  We all know that knowledge is power, so as you build up your knowledge you will have a more realistic view on what is possible and you’ll be able to view your journey in more clear way.  When you are knowledgeable you will surely be more motivated to stay healthy and fit.  Many times, in your fitness journey, you think you are conquering a large mountain but with new information you will realize it’s a small hill, and the reverse is also true.  So having information will allow you to be more mentally stable, and you will to go through this fitness journey with a minimal amount of stress, which is very motivating.

Join a group

Finding a group of people that are on the same journey is motivating.  Many of these people will be able to relate to your struggles and will be able to encourage you.  It is always easier to accomplish things when you are with people that you get along with socially.  When living a fit lifestyle you need different types of friend groups, you may have your friends that like to go out to eat, but when you join a fitness group you will have a new friend group that likes to workout.  When you make new friends you have new support groups to lean on, when accomplishing different endeavors.

Track your progress

Knowing your exercise numbers can be a great way to motivate you to exercise.  It is a great feeling to try to accomplish a goal for 2 weeks and finally reach that goal. Accomplishing a new goal will make you feel good for at least a week. Also knowing you would have gotten stronger is motivating.  When you track your exercise progress you can see yourself getting better from week to week, month to month, and that is an encouraging thing, and will motivate you to keep going.

Reward yourself

Rewarding yourself, in a healthy way, is great motivation.  A form of healthy rewards, are money, compliments, a massage, a healthy vacation, a photo shoot, etc. Rewards are great but you have to make sure that the reward does not derail your fitness progress.  For example having cheat meals as a reward will cause cravings, which will make it harder for you to get back on the healthy lifestyle. Going on a “fun” vacation, where you stop exercising for a couple of days, and you are eating and drinking, for a couple of days, will surely derail, if not stop your healthy lifestyle. In the early stages of your fitness journey you must be very careful because these are the habit forming stages.  So a hiking vacation, a sight seeing vacation where you are doing lots of walking, is great. You want to avoid vacations where you are doing lots of drinking and eating.  You can reward yourself with money, through having a competition with friends, or buying yourself a new piece of clothing, etc.

You should try to do every one of these motivational tactics, some will be harder than others.  Some of these motivations you may not consistently do, but you should pick the ones that works best for you to get your desired results. The motivations that give you the best results incorporate those activities into your daily life.  




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