Get Motivated for Movement
It’s a cold, rainy winter’s morning. But you’re not worried. You’re cozy and snug under your blankets, enjoying the sound of the rain as it pelts down on your roof. Yet, at the back of your mind, there’s a nagging guilt. You’d planned to get up and exercise in the morning. You know you really should get up and move. But that bed is just so warm!
You’ve got a choice to make. We can call it mind over mattress! Yet it doesn’t only happen early in the morning. Every time we plan to work out, we face it. There are always other things we could be doing – things that seem more appealing, and less like hard work.
So, how can we win the battle of our mind that enables us to get off our butt and start exercising? The key is to uncover the real reason that you want to work out in the first place.
Uncover Your Inner Motivation
The first reason that most people give for exercising is external . . .
- I want to lose weight
- I want to a rounder butt
- I want to get my blood pressure down
But those things are only surface reasons. Dig a little deeper and ask yourself why you want to lose weight? Why get a better butt? Why improve your heart health?
When you force yourself to go deeper in this way, you’ll find that your reasons start to get personal. It could be that you want to look good for your spouse. Or maybe you want your child to see in you a positive role model. Or do you want to be able to play with your grandkids in 10 years time?
When you make your reason to exercise personal, you massively increase your motivation to get out there and ‘just do it.’ It’s the same reason that news stories always begin by zooming in on a personal experience and then pan out to the general story. When we get personal with our motivation, we trigger our emotions. And our emotions are what impel us to action.
So, sit down right now and ask yourself the ‘why’ question. Why are you wanting to exercise? Whatever answer you come up with, keep digging by asking why until you uncover the real reason that you’re working out. Inevitably you will discover an underlying motivation that is very personal to you.
Feed Your Motivation
Now that you have your underlying motivation to work out clearly in mind, you need to feed on it constantly. Throughout your day you are going to encounter hundreds of opportunities and reasons NOT to exercise. Unless you counter them with your underlying motivation, you won’t stand a chance.
Write out your underlying workout motivation in a single sentence. It may be something like this . . .
I am working out today because I am determined to be a positive role model for my son!
Put that statement in your purse. Then throughout the day, take it out and look at it at least 3 times. If you do that, those temptations not to follow through on your workout will appear to you exactly what they are – pathetic, pointless and of absolutely no value.
3 More Motivation Hacks to Beat Procrastination
- When working out first thing in the morning, lay out your training gear the night before so you’re ready to go.
- Put a workout calendar on your fridge door and place a big ‘X’ through each session as you complete it.
- At the end of the week, reward yourself for sticking to your schedule. Pamper yourself with a bubble bath or watch your chick flick on Netflix.