How to Workout When It’s So Difficult to Get Started
Helping you navigate difficult times to make working out worth the time
Working Out is a Fancy Name
It’s not uncommon that many people around the world are working out now as a means of helping them to feel better in their skin. I have found, though, that working out for some may be causing more difficulty than one might think. First let’s tackle the fact that working out is just a fancy word to describe getting in shape. I prefer a different connotation especially if I have a gran goal in mind to accomplish.
Think of it like this – you are working towards a goal. You are not merely just moving your body through space with no intent. You want to move your body through space to create a piece of art out of your body, and improve your physiology. The gym is one of your many tools that you can use to your advantage. The trick is to train not necessarily your body to get in shape, but your mind to stick with it.
Instead of thinking it as ‘working out,’ think of it as ‘training.’
When you are training for something, that implies that you have a purpose behind what you are doing. Going into the gym to merely just move weight around needs a deep why especially if you want to stick with it.
Training for a Purpose: Defining Your Why
One of the main reasons people can not seem to stick with working out is they don’t have a strong enough why. Here are a couple tips that hopefully will help you navigate yourself and identify your why.
1. Ask yourself why are you doing this – Seems pretty straightforward, and I suggest writing down your answer. Putting your thoughts on paper makes it seem real, and may suggest to you the thoughts that are may be portraying in your subconscious mind.
2. What is 1 hr worth to you in your day? – If you can identify the value of 1 hr, however you’d like, it may paint a better picture for you and put things into perspective. 15 minute to drive to gym, 1 hr training, 15 minute drive home – is it really that bad compared to the other 24 hours in your day?
3. What happens if you don’t get started training/working out? What will happen? — May be you need to get started for health reasons, or you want to feel better in your skin. Identify clearly what will happen if you did nothing and continued the way you are.
4. What is something that is important to you and you absolutely need in your life, and why do you feel that way about it? — May be you have to go for a walk every day, or you have to have a cup of coffee every morning, or you have to have a organized home to get work done – I find that if you can identify your other important needs and wants then may be it’ll help you find a reason to include training/working out as a necessity.
5. Know thyself – it’s true you have to know what motivates you, and what inspires you. I find that movies, and inspirational music helps tremendously for most people. Music, for some, has a way of triggering a emotional response in us that is too deep and complex.
Identify a Goal and Establish a Reward
I write this with caution because identifying the goal is the easy part, and establishing the reward does not motivate some people. Some people like to feel the challenge and overcome it, others like to socialize working out as a means to motivate them, while others are more introspective.
This is why it’s important to know what moves you. Some people are really motivated by food, and that works great in the beginning, and once you start seeing and feeling the results you may be inspired to change your motivation and begin to cut out the not so good foods you shoved down your throat, i.e. cookies as a way to “burn it off,” prior to working out. After all this method can only lead to self sabotage anyways, but it works in the beginning when you are establishing a routine.
It's simple: set a goal, establish how you are going to inspire yourself to get up and do it, and finish the goal.
Even if you don’t want to finish it, you have to.
Not finishing something you started is probably the worst thing you can do to yourself as it will guarantee you will begin to yo yo diet, and thus it leads you no where.
If you had to take one thing away from this it’s to finish what you said you were going to do, and even if you did not reach your goal – that’s OK because it’s who you become over time that matters. If you stick with it and with hard work, you’ll get there.
Be well.
Yelena