What motivates you?

What is it that motivates you to move? The answer to that question is important to answer if you want to keep moving and stick to any New Year’s Resolutions you may have set to improve your health and wellness. What motivates you? Keep reading to find out.

What Motivates You

Research claims that health and weight loss are two motivators that encourages us to get started with a workout routine, but our health and weight are not strong enough motivators to keep us committed. That means many of our good intentions in January start to slack off mid month. One fitness App that tracks workouts indicates that most people have given up on their fitness resolutions by Jan 17^th. That date has come and gone.

That’s why it is important to understand what your real, intrinsic (personal) motivator to move is…especially if you are someone who doesn’t LOVE moving. If you need to force yourself to move, knowing what motivates you is vital to helping you stay devoted to a fitness routine.

Allow for Change

What motivates us can change over time. Maybe it’s your desire to play with your kids or grandkids. Maybe you’ve always wanted to run a 5K or build up to marathon. Perhaps you are prone to back pain and your motivation is to be able to tie your shoes without pain. You can have big or little goals. But to stick to them, they need to feel achievable.

To help you remember what keeps us committed to fitness longer, think F.A.S.T

Fun & Feels Good

To stay committed to an exercise program it needs to be fun and feel good. That isn’t what comes to mind for most of us when we plan a workout routine. We think we have to sweat, groan, and be miserable. It’s the opposite if you want to show up week after week. Plus if you push too hard too soon, you may wind up injured and then you can’t show up to move.

Achievable Goals

Setting goals and putting a purpose behind our exercise helps us stay driven. One of my goals recently has been to be able to do a handstand. I ended up hurting my shoulder which derailed that. So my fitness resolution for 2020 was to give my shoulder more focused attention so I can get back to my handstand goal. If I just jumped back into handstands injured, I’d be derailed the first day.

Achievable is a key factor here. If you have never run before and you set a goal of running a marathon, that might crush your dreams. Maybe start with a Couch to 5K. If you like that, try a half. If you like that maybe a marathon is in your future. When you don’t enjoy the process, maybe it’s time to set a new goal.

Social

Workouts can be time with friends. If you can’t think of any type of movement you enjoy, trick yourself into workouts, but combining it with friendship. Meet a friend every day for a walk. Sign up for a fitness class and make new friends. Use social media to share your goals and get feedback and encouragement.

Time

We have to make time for our workouts. If we don’t everything in life gets prioritized. I list my workout routines on my calendar. Even for someone who loves movement and enjoys working out, it’s easy to let other activities fill empty space.

For more info on what motivates us and think F.A.S.T watch this clip from NBC CT Live:

Keep Reading

Looking for a different twist on New Year’s Resolutions? Check out my friend Julie’s idea.

Sometimes resolutions don’t come right away. Want to read more about my struggle with the handstand?

What motivates you?