What’s the longest you’ve stuck to something you said you’d do?
I ask this question to make you think a bit. Many of us aspire to be better in many different aspects of our lives, whether it be health, family, social, financial, personal development or career.
The keys to success are the same in all of them. And by knowing and applying these key principles, you can reach your goals. I have highlighted the applying part there, because some of us know these things already, but it’s putting them into practice where we are lacking!
Let Me Ask You a Question…
We are coming into November now, and the year is rapidly drawing to a close. Can you recall if you made any New Years Resolutions at the start of this year? How are you tracking with them?
The key to getting anywhere is consistency in your actions. Unfortunately, most of us get too busy, or lazy, or just aren’t in the right state anymore, to follow through on what we need to do in order to achieve our goals.
How to stick to your exercise program – once all the initial novelty of starting something new has worn off, it can be difficult to stick with it.
Here are some tips to help you:
Remember why you started in the first place
A lot of people forget why they started in the first place. They get excited about creating a goal, and at the beginning this keeps them going, but then they lose sight of the why. Write down why you’re doing this and what you hope to achieve, and keep it handy so that you can refer to it in moments when you don’t feel like taking action.
Visualize the end result every day
This sort of ties in with the above. How many times have you set a goal, and then never thought about it again for weeks, or even months? I know I have (cue reminders of unfinished new years resolutions). You should think about and visualize your desired end result every day. Your goal should be enough to inspire and motivate you to action. If it’s not, then you need to put some work into making the thought of it it exciting enough that it’s something you want to strive towards when you think about it.
Create Momentum
One of Newton’s Laws of Physics is that an object in motion will stay in motion, unless it is otherwise influenced. Guess what, you can use this to your advantage.
Before you even have the chance to become disheartened, uninspired or lazy, commit to doing at least 1 small step towards your goal each day. Commit to spending at least 2 minutes doing one small thing, even if you don’t feel like it.
2 minutes is nothing – it’s minuscule enough that there’s no excuses for why you can’t find 2 minutes in your day. If you find yourself thinking you’ll skip it – just remind yourself that it’s just 2 minutes, and kick your bum into gear!
Now, 9 times out of 10, you do that 2 minutes of activity, and it easily turns to 10, 30 or even 60 minutes towards the thing you weren’t going to do at all in the first place. The 2 minutes is just a ‘kick starter’ to get your momentum happening.
Once you’ve got momentum, put your all in
I was brought up constantly being told, “If you’re not going to do something properly, then don’t bother doing it at all.” The same goes here. Don’t just go through the motions in your workout and then pat yourself on the back later. The key to seeing results (remember that single reason you’re doing this all for?) is giving it your all. Use the knowledge that you’re just wasting time if you don’t put your all in to push yourself beyond your limits.
What has worked for you when it comes to sticking to your exercise plan (or anything in life, for that matter)? I’d love to hear from you, so please drop me a comment below!
I like the point about visualization in this post. It seems to me that visualization is the key to success in so many things.
The reason we sometimes fail to achieve our goals is because the subconscious mind controls just about everything we do. If we don’t convince the subconscious to go where we want to go, it will keep dragging us back. The more strongly we can visualise a positive outcome, the more likely that we will take the right action and maintain the momentum.
This is a great post on health and fitness. I for one will keep the points in mind.
I fully agree with you Ray. There’s a lot to motivation but a lot of it all boils down to keeping your eye on the goal. Thanks for your comment!