I've been exercising for over a year now. When I started, I had a strong desire to establish an exercise program. Desire is, after all, just a feeling and all feelings pass. To have a shot at success I knew I needed to be and stay motivated. Motivation is not a feeling. It's a decision plus a commitment. The decision is not "I want to." The decision is "I will." The commitment is "I will whether I feel like it or not!" There are many mornings when I don't feel like going to the gym. I would just as soon stay in bed, reset the alarm, and pull the covers over my head. 
Yesterday was that kind of morning. Mornings like that are good teachers. The alarm went off, as usual, at 0500. I hit the snooze button and must have hit it twice as the next thing I know it's buzzing at 5:20. I tell myself "It's too late to go to the gym and you won't be able to do your routine anyway so you might as well get some extra sleep." Didn't work. Two minutes later I tell myself to get my ass out of bed, go to the gym, and do what I can. Once at the gym I decided to skip the weight training and do an extra 15 minutes of aerobics. I learned two things: First, no matter what, exercise as planned and second, don't insist on doing things exactly one way. Be flexible rather than rigid in implementing your plans because rigidity can easily become an excuse for doing nothing at all. Ah, well.... sometimes you have to get behind yourself and push and sometimes you have to be creative. 
Here are three links with helpful tips for staying motivated to exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment