If you’re anything like most people struggling to get motivated to exercise, knowing that physical activity is good for you means nothing. You need something more to inspire you to get off the couch and move your body, but you’re not sure what.
Out of all the challenges related to forming a habit of regular exercise, getting started is probably the most difficult thing. For this reason, this chapter will cover exactly how to overcome laziness or reluctance and start exercising.
We’ll start with covering three different types of motivation and how they can help you start exercising. In addition to discussing them, we’ll talk about push and pull motivations and how most people choose the wrong “P” and give up when they face obstacles.
Next, we’ll dig deep into one of the most powerful ideas to get yourself motivated for exercise and keep exercising. With this simple – but slightly uncomfortable – trick you can light a fire under yourself that will ensure you’ll get plenty of exercise.
Last but not least, we’ll move on to the issue of procrastination and how to finally stop postponing exercise. It’s tricky to start exercising if you have a habit of putting everything off for later. You’ll learn how to make exercising an automated behavior so you don’t have to exert your willpower each time you need to get active.
Without further ado, let’s start by discussing three types of motivation: extrinsic, intrinsic, and prosocial.