OVERCOMING FITNESS MOTIVATION STRUGGLES

Once you've built a habit of regular exercising (check out How To Form A Fitness Habit), you can still find yourself struggling and giving excuses to avoid it. After all, skipping one day doesn't make a difference. Depending on your character, you might feel guilty about it or you promise to push yourself harder next time. What to do to beat the lazy mindset?

Penalties - give yourself a slacking allowance. Just like your sick work days. Just like your 'cheat' food days. You can take an X amount off during the whole year. Create some sort of monetary or actionable punishment for yourself if you go overboard. 

When were you at your best? Try to remember the last time you felt very excited and motivated to go to the gym. Everyone's reasons are different, and you need to understand what made YOU try harder. You can even 'borrow' your own motivation ideas from other aspects of your life. What energises you and makes you determined to complete a task? It could involve another person who pushed you a little bit, or someone you enjoy being around with. It could be a healthy meal or a cup of nice coffee. Maybe it is visual, like looking at images and videos of people you admire.

Little goals go a long way. As much as it's important to have a BIG goal in your head regarding your fitness goals, create smaller bite-size chunks that are easier to visualise. It can be as simple as putting a numerical weekly goal e.g. go the gym 3 times, or increase the weight/reps in the next workout. 

Social accountability. Can be done via social media if you're brave with the body progress selfies or staying accountable in front of your friends or loved ones. By announcing your fitness commitment (I recommend to make it specific - X number of gym days a week or X amount of weight to lose), you'll be in a more committed mindset as now you're risking to lose face. 

All or nothing. We all know that it is a combination of consistent gym routine + quality food = best results. By letting yourself down in one of them, you're cancelling out the hard work from another. Re-think your commitment to the fitness goals again. It is already a very slow process that can become literally untraceable if you're not giving 100%.

Have you ever regretted a workout? Even if you cut it short or didn't give it 100% effort, I bet you'd still feel better that you did go. 

NOW JUST GO AND DO IT!