3 Tips to Help You Find Long-Term Workout Motivation
By Genevieve Cunningham
One of the hardest parts about maintaining a workout routine is keeping the motivation alive. It’s so easy to lose track of why you want to be healthy. The drudgery of the everyday workout just gets long and hard. Before we know it, we’ve skipped a workout … and then another. Before long, we skip more workouts than we make, and unless we can relight the fire of motivation, the cycle continues. So what do we do? How do we get back that motivation? If you need help with long-term motivation for exercise and health, take a look at these tips to get you moving in the right direction.
Find a Long-Term Goal
A long-term goal is one that we know we’re not going to meet today. We’re not going to meet it tomorrow either. In fact, it may take our entire lives to meet this goal … but we know that it will be worth it. Maybe yours is to drop some of your current medications. Maybe you want to improve heart health and prevent major disease. Maybe you want to lose 100 pounds! Whatever the case may be, a long-term goal helps us remember that there is a reason for the work and a light at the end of the tunnel.
Find Mini Goals
While long-term goals are great, short-term goals are what help us keep moving. You’ll want to set hundreds of tiny achievable goals throughout your life. Maybe you want to lose five pounds in a month. Maybe the next month you want to lose two inches from your waist. Maybe you want to drop a dress size. These goals should be things that you can meet soon, things that help you feel successful and keep you going. If you don’t have mini goals, set one or two now, and it may be enough to get you moving again.
Get a Posse
Nothing gets you moving more than like-minded friends. If you really want to stay motivated, get a group of friends who will work out with you. Friends who want to be healthy and lose weight and live their best physical lives. While this can take some time to find and develop these kinds of friendships, the payoff is more than worth it when you have a whole group of people to help you start moving toward your ultimate goals in health.
Motivation is hard. Discipline is hard. Forming healthy habits is hard. But all of these things are so worth the effort. Use these tips to give your motivation the jolt that it needs to get your body, mind, and health back on track and headed toward the best health yet.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Wichita, Kans.