Want to be someone who exercises? Read this.
Following on from last week’s blog on the secrets to weight loss – here are some tips on how to improve your motivation to exercise that most people don’t talk about. It’s not about laziness or lack of willpower!
If you really want to do something and you’re not doing it – then it could be that there’s part of you that doesn’t truly want it – like you’re protecting yourself from the results associated with it. It might be hard to understand – here are some questions that might help.
Does avoiding exercise or having extra weight bring a benefit in any way – for example - being in your comfort zone, keeping you safe, avoiding failure? Does any of that ring true? Awareness can help and some coaching around this be a game changer to boost your unconscious motivation.
Things that might hinder your progress
· You’ve made the change too extreme
· You’ve put too much pressure on yourself
· You think of people who exercise as different to you
· You see exercise as a punishment or something you *should* do
Try this to get your mindset on board:
Close your eyes and imagine yourself really engaged in exercising; what does that future you look like? What benefits can you see, hear, feel, know and even smell or taste? Visualise the end results – health, posture, confidence, energy, feeling comfortable and strong in your body, clear mind. Don’t make it all about a certain weight or size – exercise brings benefits on so many levels. And then go backwards, imagine the images rewinding to see how to build up to being someone who exercises because you enjoy it, everyone starts somewhere. What ideas do you have? What would change if you knew you’d definitely get there? How would your focus change? Could you actually enjoy this change in lifestyle? Listen to a Mp3 that talks you through this visualisation.
What activity would make you happy? Or is it a mix of activities? What did you used to like as a child – when you didn’t see movement as ‘exercise’ you had to do? Choose one idea and apply the following tips for the next few weeks.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits has some great guidance on how to make habits stick.
Make it obvious – set up what you’re wearing the night before, put your trainers by the door, get your yoga mat out, make an appointment with yourself in your calendar.
Make it attractive – get some good music on, do it with friends, set it up in the garden, find your way to make it appealing.
Make it easy – start small, if you want to focus on press ups for example – start with 2 and slowly build up. By making things achievable and low effort to start with means that there is less unconscious resistance.
Make it satisfying – give yourself a inner high five, celebrate getting things done – reward yourself with a nice dopamine boost. You could have a chart you tick off or stickers, you can text a friend to celebrate.
I hope that’s given you some ideas to any resistance to exercise you had. If you’d like a coaching call to give yourself an extra boost then book in a call direct here.
Read more from James Clear here: https://jamesclear.com/three-steps-habit-change
Listen to podcast with James Clear: https://drchatterjee.com/how-to-build-good-habits-and-break-bad-ones-with-james-clear/