How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ― Dale Carnegie

Continuing with the topic of exercise struggles (based on reader responses), today I'll be addressing the most common challenge (currently and always) with exercise, which is:

👉🏼 Lack of motivation.

Most people think that motivation works like this:

1. Inspiration comes from an emotional event.

🧨 FEAR: You get some less than stellar test results from your doctor and will have to go on medication if you don't make some changes soon.

🧨 UNHAPPINESS: You put on your favorite dress or shirt and it's fitting just a little tighter than you'd like.

🧨 FRUSTRATION: The elevator breaks down, forcing you to take the stairs, and you aren't happy about how quickly doing so puts you out of breath.

2. The inspiration gives you motivation.

🙌🏼 I want to get healthy!

🙌🏼 I want to lose weight!

🙌🏼 I want to get fit!

3. The motivation leads to action.

✅ I'm going to reduce my wine intake to 4 glasses per week.

✅ I'm going to increase my vegetable intake to 5 servings per day.

✅ I'm going to go for a run 2x/week.

By this interpretation, if you want to take action, you're screwed if you don't have a strong enough inspiration or motivation to get you started.

Relying only on charged emotional events to generate motivation puts control of your actions outside of yourself and (unless you're living with David Goggins) will leave you glued to the couch most of the time.

The reality is that motivation isn't a three-part chain, but rather an endless loop like this:

Your actions lead to emotional reactions (inspiration) which then lead to motivation towards future actions.

With this perspective, we can shift our mindset towards motivation to one that puts action as the catalyst rather than the byproduct:

So, as cliche as it may be, Nike's "Just Do It" slogan is motivational genius.

Doing something, anything, is a sure fire solution for lack of motivation.

Even if it's only 1 minute of exercise.

Because taking action, no matter how small, FEELS GOOD.

And those good feelings provide motivation towards future actions.

So, if your plan is built around taking action AFTER motivation strikes, instead brainstorm on how you can act FIRST, even if you aren't "feeling it".

Because you won't always be "feeling it".

And that's OK.

A common misconception is that people who are most successful with maintaining healthy habits approach every workout session like this:

When the reality is that there's a whole lot of this going on.

Doing stuff that you aren't always 100% thrilled about BUT that you know is good for you (or is necessary for what you want to achieve), is part of being an adult. 🤷🏼‍♀️

📢 You don't always need to be motivated, you just need to find ways to make taking action easier.

🤔 Can you shape your physical environment to encourage more exercise? 🤔 Can you focus on movements you enjoy rather than "what's best"? 🤔 Can make your action step so tiny that it's nearly impossible to NOT do it? 🤔 Can you get someone to hold you accountable (like a coach...wink, wink)?

And, remember to keep the motivation loop at the top of your mind.

The more aware we are that action will lead to motivation, the more we can use some good ol' self talk to encourage choosing behaviors that better align with our goals.

So that the next time you "aren't feeling it", you can tell yourself to "just do it" anyway.

If you are struggling with where or how to begin, revisit these previous posts on starting where you are, making small changes, and taking action for guidance.