How many of you wait until you feel in the mood to exercise? Or even find yourself excitedly wanting to get fit but find that motivation disappearing quite quickly?
It can be frustrating to have fitness goals or just want to be healthier only to find yourself simply not wanting to bother. There are some natural reasons for this which include:
1.Your survival instinct
2.Lack of knowledge
3.Believing your thoughts
4.Loneliness
Survival
I always feel amazing after a run, yet my mind like many others can convince me to do something else. There are reasons for this and you can blame evolution and also perspectives at the time of what we want to do. Your mind wants you to always be safe and it also wants you to feel good. This is part of our survival system doing it’s best to keep you safer and away from possible harm physically and emotionally. If there is any indication of negative, uncomfortable feelings in the future your mind can simply begin to sabotage your efforts and get you to go back to familiar patterns of behaviour which at that moment feel safer and much better to do. If chocolate biscuits is in the memory bank as a feel good option then you could find yourself eating a packet with cup of tea whilst kidding yourself you are off to the gym tomorrow instead.
Lack of Knowledge
Another factor to consider is that you can feel negative about running or exercise for example simply due to lack of knowledge. You can make exercise much easier and less hassle if you get some proper training and advice. Many gyms like LA Fitness for example offer great advice for their members and it’s always worth having induction or personal training sessions to make sure you know how to use equipment and feel more familiar with your workout. I go running and it’s advice like this LA Fitness Running Advice which helps makes it much easier to get into it. If you don’t learn the basics then you risk injury or tire out too easily which your mind will use to sabotage future runs.
Thought are just Thoughts
Learning some Mind Management skills would be a great tool when it comes to believing the thoughts which appear in your mind. Thoughts are options, altered memories of the past and indicators of a possible future. They are not the truth. Learning to be aware of them and to become proactive instead of reactive can go a long way.
Training Buddy
Also get a training buddy if possible and make a pact to simply “just go and do it,” regardless of the sabotage you become aware of happening in your heads. Also make it as fun as possible and focus on what you get out of going and why this is important to you, this can help override your sabotage program so you can just get on with it.
Remember it’s all in the head and you can by making some simple changes make it easier to exercise or be more successful with your intentions.
