How to motivate yourself to exercise

Motivation is the key part to succeeding not only in fitness and weight loss but to succeed in life in general.  Motivation can be created in many different ways.  In life people who tend to have the most drive, tend to want something a lot so are fighting to get it, the more you want it the harder you will work for it.  Hardship in life creates drive, if you are born very poor you may have a strong drive to be rich, and once you are rich, a strong drive to hold on to it as you never want to go back where you came from.  The same can be said for people who were overweight as kids or very slim when they were younger, they get fed up of being picked on because of their body shape so push themselves to get an incredible body, originally their goal is to be the same as everyone else but then they want to show off how much they have improved so try to build an incredible body far beyond the average.  I have talked on this blog before about boosting motivation through the obvious things in the gym such as getting a personal trainer to motivate you, listening to music whilst training etc but in this post I want to concentrate more on getting in a mindset to succeed in your fitness and weight loss goals through changing your whole lifestyle and approach.

I am not saying everyone needs to take the gym as seriously as I did, of course not, it has a different importance to each of us but thought you may find it interesting to see from my example the development of motivation to get results.  What got me in the mindset to working out 5 times a week for 5 years with only a few weeks off each year, was watching the Rocky movies and being a very skinny teenager.  I was fed up with being regarded as skinny, so turned this anger into a drive to get results.  The Rocky movies are a common video a lot of athletes and pro weightlifters refer to, the reason is that the majority of the film is based on training and it shows training equals results and then success, this movie showed thousands of teenagers that with hard exercise they could go on and succeed, its as simple as that.  I have spoken to professional boxers before about The Rocky films and many have said thats what got them started and some said they still watch them every 6 months or so to inspire them.  I have spoken to athletes that tell me they watch videos of their sport regularly to inspire them.  When I was involved in competitive bodybuilding I used to read every magazine comparing my bodyshape to guys of a similar age, when they looked in better condition it would spur me on to work harder.  You have to keep giving yourself new goals all the time to keep yourself constantly motivated.  If your building a business for the sole purpose of making money for example its good to look at things you can’t afford so it spurs you on to get them.  Walking around a ferrari showroom looking at the cars when you can’t afford one to some people may sound stupid but actually creates the drive to want it.   Looking at the fitness magazines and watching the bodybuilding videos were crucial for me as they kept me wanting to push harder to get a body like those I was seeing.  I used to compare myself to another bodybuilder of the same age who was top in his part of the country, I would make sure I consistently checked every few months his shape to make sure I was not lagging behind, if I skipped a meal or workout I would feel the other guy had got an advantage on me.  This mentality is similar amongst athletes, musicians and businessmen.  Last year whilst attending a violin concerto at Cadogan Hall I asked one of the top violinists in the world, in his early 20’s, about his practicing and he said he does 6-7 hours a day and would never take a month off as he would fall too far behind it may be difficult to catch up.  What I have been talking about here shows why it is also important to surround yourself with other fit people regularly, if you are always around really out of shape people you will feel a lot better shape than them so wouldn’t push yourself as hard if everyone around you was in much better shape.  The same with anything in life, who you surround yourself with heavily influences how you turn out, hence many drug addicts for example not being able to quit drugs until they completely relocate as their old friends are constantly negatively influencing them.

To get yourself in the mindset there are lots of things you can do to create this.  If your a man read fitness magazines regularly to see the great bodies you could get your body like.  I often advise people to stick them on their fridge so they are reminded of it during eating times.   If your a woman look at the great beach bodies of different women in bikinis and do the same.  This is constantly reminding us of what we want.  Allot of women go out and buy a dress they can’t fit into so they work hard to get into it.  This is another good method but unfortunately most people I hear of doing this don’t tend to ever get into them as they tend to be people who do things spare of the moment like purchasing that dress, they don’t usually spend ages thinking I will go and get a dress that I can’t fit into to spur me on at the gym.  Think of the benefits of being in good shape, when your in good shape as a man you come across more confident, which you probably will be more as you are proud of the body you have created and you know you look good.  For women,you can wear all the great clothes, they will look great on you and the same as for men it boosts confidence.  Think of the bad things associated with being out of shape, you look lazy, like you don’t care and people often think you haven’t got your life together.  A good body creates a world of difference and you will really notice it once you have achieved it.  Lots of businessmen that train with us often say they don’t like to miss training for more than a week otherwise they feel sluggish and not motivated in their company.  Exercise keeps you focused and on track, I train people with cancer who find the exercise keeps them focused and motivated to keep fighting on forward.

The mindset for getting fitness and weight loss results is crucial the main difference between those who get the best results and those who don’t is the amount each other want the results.  If you really want to be slim and you suffer from thyroid problems for example you can be thin, you will have to work a hell of a lot harder than the average person but you can certainly get in good shape.  There are very few people that I have come across in my career that can’t get an incredible body because of general life restrictions you just have to want it enough.

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