It’s been over a month in the year 2019, and statistically speaking half of Americans have given up their new year’s resolutions. Initiation of exercise is one of the most common resolutions and yet the average person has less than a 50 percent chance of maintaining that goal. This problem of not holding ourselves to our personal goals doesn’t just include the new year, it’s commonplace to lose motivation and give up exercise goals year round. Ultimately, success comes down to motivation, habit, and holding yourself accountable. With a little know-how, most people can find their way to finally exercising more.
Setting the Right Goal
Believing there’s a one-size-fits-all to exercise is a very common fallacy a lot of people tend to make in regards to their exercise. Often, this alone can kill the spirits of someone trying to change their life habits when they start to bite off more than they can chew. Many people begin their exercise by planning on going to the gym or jogging a certain amount of times a week but to people that don’t normally do these activities, they can easily feel intimidated to just try.
To combat this, it is best to think of your ultimate goal and work backward to something that intrigues you. If you want to get more cardio,consider finding trails to run on, or try out golf lessons as a way to ease into a new sport! By finding an activity that involves exercise, you are increasing sources of motivation for yourself and end up with an added level of satisfaction, in the end. Exercise also helps you to improve your mental health and your social abilities, you can try to find some sports groups to keep you motivated or even join a women sports community.
Be Your Own Ally, Not Your Own Enemy
There aren’t any big downsides to exercise beyond surface level criticisms, too time-consuming, or the difficulty to begin. Yet, it seems like not that many people take the effort to become active. With all the excuses, it’s important to reach out and make the necessary efforts to encourage yourself to go out exercise.
First, you need to look at your own excuses. It can be tempting to take your own concede, but take a step back and realize that most excuses you can make are “wrong”. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a psychology theory about human motivation, shows that the problems of the physiological need to be addressed before everything else. The idea is that people can’t worry about their safety, being loved, their own self-esteem, or self-actualization if their physical needs aren’t met. Of course, exercise is important for our bodies, as we aren’t meant to be immobile. It is an important aspect of the physiological, but people have been able to convince themselves that it’s an issue of self-actualization. If you mentally remind yourself that you have to work out, it will help increase your motivation to do so.
Furthermore, the excuse you make to not exercise originates from levels above physiological. They are less important than exercising, such as being embarrassed about out in public, not being in a good mood, or not having enough time; they’re all bad excuses.
Start Healthy Habits
Once you realize that your reasons to give up are misguided, you need to push yourself to make exercising a habit. It is often brought up that to make a habit, you have to force yourself to repeat an action for over 21 days. The number of people that gave up their new year’s resolution by February is a whopping 50 percent. However, between the months of February and July, the statistic drops to 46 percent. This decrease is likely to do with the fact that the 21-day mark has been breached. Once a habit is made, it becomes that much easier to motivate yourself in your exercise.
Ultimately, being active and moving is important an important part your physical and mental health. Equally, mustering up the courage to motivate yourself to exercise is just as important. All you really need to do is find your interest, realize that exercise is more valuable than nearly all your needs, and keep at it. No one is born with unstoppable willpower, but using these tips and advice, you can leverage it to your own advantage.
