Committing to consistently working out can be hard.
But it turns out, you can quickly set yourself up for fitness success with a few simple motivational tactics.
Ready to finally commit to working out and achieve your fitness goals? Let’s dive right in!
1. Plan Ahead
If you’re starting a new workout journey tomorrow — pack whatever’s needed tonight.
Whether you’re bodybuilding, running, dancing — whatever, pack anything you plan on using to workout tonight so that when you’re ready, you have everything you need.
This tip is all about reducing friction. Give yourself one less reason to skip a workout, and you’re more likely to get out there.
That means that you’re planning ahead every day, not just the first day!
2. Set Some Metrics
The most common fitness goals are centered around weight. Weight alone isn’t sufficient.
Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you’re running to lose weight, you may be building some lean muscle in the process.
If you’re stepping on a scale to measure success, you may be disappointed to see you’re not losing much weight, when in fact you could be toning muscles.
If you’re trying to gain weight, you might be misled when your weight goes up but some of it is due to added fat.
Weight is certainly the easiest to measure, which is why people rely on it so much.
Mix in some qualitative measurements to measure progress, such as:
- Muscle definition
- How your clothes fit
- Energy levels throughout the day
- Increases in weights lifted, reps counted, distance traveled, etc.
Setting more than one metric will broaden your perspective on measurable success, which will keep you coming back for more.
3. Use Social Media
This is one of the best ways to hold yourself accountable.
Sharing goals with others drastically increases the rate at which you’ll accomplish it.
In fact, entire platforms are dedicated to it, like Weilos (fitness social media app) and The 100 Day Project.
On platforms like these, you meet like-minded people who can urge you to maintain your commitment. As you share your progress, you’re more inclined to continue sharing.
Perhaps most importantly, on the days that you really don’t want to workout, you’ll now have a group of people that you don’t want to let down.
This is essentially “hacking” our evolutional hardware. Humans are social beings, and have depending on approval of groups for most of our existence. The idea of missing out on approval is a strong motivator to get after your goals.
4. Plan Days Off
It may seem counter intuitive, but planning days off is a key to committing to fitness goals.
This effectively eliminates the “I’ll do it tomorrow”, or even worse, the “I’ll double-down tomorrow”.
Plan your days off, and you’ll be more motivated to get through one more workout knowing that the next day is a day off.
5. Bet on Yourself
If you’re not inclined to publish your progress on social media, placing a bet on yourself is equally as effective.
This is another hack on our own psychology. Human beings are more prone to loss-aversion than gains. Meaning, the idea of losing something is far more intimidating than the idea of gaining something.
Use that to your advantage by making a one-way bet with a friend. I say “one-way bet” because you don’t want them to have incentive to prevent you from working out!
If you were to say “I bet you $50 that I can workout every day for two weeks straight”, then anytime you’re inclined to take a day off, you’ll remember your bet and get to work.
Then, similar to posting on social media, let the person you bet know each time you workout. Your money and fitness goals are squared away.
6. Visualize Your Progress
Put something in a highly visual area to remind you of what you’ve accomplished thus far.
The simplest of solutions are often the best. Something like a calendar on the fridge with big “X”s marking the days you’ve worked out.
This serves as a reminder, day in and day out, of the progress you’re making.
Plus, you get the added advantage of wanting to maintain the big streak of “X”s on the calendar.
At the end of the month, any blank spaces you see will make you consider why you skipped that day. If it wasn’t a planned day off, you can evaluate if your excuse to skip was valid or not.
Conclusion
There you have it — 6 simple ways to keep you committed to fitness.
I’d like to hear from you — what tactics do you use to maintain your discipline with exercising?
Or maybe you have a story about how you used an above tip.
Either way, let me know!
