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Finding The Motivation to Exercise

There are a couple of common trends I’ve noticed in people who don’t currently have a steady exercise habit in place.  Both of these ‘attitudes’ towards exercise make ‘logical sense’ but there is a big problem with them:

They just don’t work to get people off the couch and planted in a routine that they enjoy and that lasts.

Here are the two common attitudes we’ve noticed that keep people stuck in their ‘not-exercising habit’, and a few suggestions about how to begin changing them.

1.    “I’m just not motivated to exercise!”

People who carry around this attitude towards exercise actually have the ‘motivation formula’ backwards.  They wrongly think motivation will be like a light bulb that finally goes off in their head and then they’ll finally be motivated to take action.

What they don’t understand is that the motivation is much more likely to flow one they begin taking action.  Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.

The art is in getting off the couch.

One key reason this is true is actually biological in nature:

Once you start breathing harder and get your heart rate up, your brain will automatically start releasing endorphins (those little ‘happy chemicals’ that lift your mood and make you feel good) and your energy level will shift.  You will be feeling good, and consequently your motivation naturally builds.

I know this sounds a little trite and obvious, but there’s a reason Nike has clung to the same marketing message for so many years.

“Just Do It” has stood the test of time for them because there is a fundamental truth in the idea.

The art is in the start- not in thinking there is some hidden secret out there that will strike like a bolt of lightning and then make it somehow magically happen.

It’s sort of like an old fashioned ‘spinning top’.  Remember those?  One little flick of the wrist would set the thing in motion for minutes at a time.

But you had to pick it up and set it into motion- otherwise it was just an object that sat there motionless and did nothing.

So if this is you, then your challenge is to be that top and just pick it up and spin it.  Don’t think about it; don’t strategize about it; just do it.

Here is something specific you can try: (more…)

I received a call from a friend last night who I hadn’t spoken to in awhile. When I asked him how he was, he said “Good, but BUSY!”  Moments later he asked me the same question, and the most honest answer I could give him was the same, “Good, but BUSY!”

This is a topic that has been on my mind a lot of late, and I have come to believe that being busy is one of the hallmarks of our society today. It also has become a very familiar complaint in my coaching work with individuals. And as a busy person myself, finding the time to exercise is something I have wrestled with as well.

What I have realized is that there are two critical steps each of us must consider if we want to be successful at incorporating exercise into our busy schedules.

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Do you know what you really want? I don’t mean in terms of what car you drive or what kind of home you live in. Sure, homes and cars and toys are a part of life, but they are not what ultimately gives us meaning or happiness. So, when I ask this question, I am not really speaking in material terms at all.

Instead what I mean is do you really know what you want out of life? Do you know who you really want to be in this world?

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I went for a great run down by the Hudson River yesterday evening.  I met
with a client down at the end of a long pier to have a chat (always
good to get out of the office), and then when we were done, I did a
bunch of calisthenic exercises and then had a great run.

This is around 67th street, down where they
have done a fantastic restoration project.  It’s sort of a prairie
theme, so there are all these tall grasses everywhere, with all sort
of really cool places to sit and watch the river, or joggers and
bikers going by.

There is a great wooden boardwalk running the length
of the area, and some fantastic stone piers stretching a good ways out
over the river.

I happened to be down there around dusk. There was a very light cloud cover, not enough to fully obscure the sun, and so the colors were just dazzling.

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