How to Stay Motivated to Get Fit

Motivational Tip #1 – Set Goals

It’s important to set goals in order to achieve what you want. Think about what you want to achieve with your health and fitness, and create actionable goals, that you would be able to track and accomplish. You want to be clear, and intentional with your goal setting, and create target metrics for each goal.

For example, a vague goal would be, “I want to lose weight”.

While a more intentional goal would be, “I want to lose 20 pounds in 4 months and keep the weight off indefinitely”.

With the first example, while a goal is set, it is such a vague goal that creating target metrics to accomplish it would prove challenging,  if not impossible since there isn’t a target number.

When you create an intentional goal you are able to break the larger goal down into smaller more conceivable tasks.

For example, the goal to lose 20 pounds in 4 months and keep the weight off can be broken down into these smaller tasks;

All of the goals can easily be tracked, and all will aid in accomplishing your overarching goal. Having a goal of losing five pounds each month is a lot easier to envision especially if you’re just starting on your journey. 5 pounds isn’t a number people get intimidated by and therefore are more likely to attempt. Tracking your progress, having an accountability partner, and building healthy habits will all help to sustain the results achieved. We will go further into detail on these topics below.

Motivational Tip #2 – Build Healthy Habits

Building healthy habits is essential to not only achieving your fitness goals but sustaining your results as well. When you establish healthy habits then you are able to live a healthier lifestyle with little thought involved. It is a way of self-automating your fitness journey. 

Motivational Tip #3 – Track Your Progress

A study done by Michigan State showed that 76% of participants who wrote down their goals, actions, and provided weekly progress to a friend (accountability partner), successfully achieved their goals. Students who set goals tracked progress and had an accountability partner were 33% more likely to achieve their goals. You can find more information about the study here – Achieving your goals: An evidence-based approach – MSU Extension.

You can track your progress in several ways. Here are a few examples to get you started;

Motivational Tip #4 – Be Patient

Patience is a virtue. Remember, you are on a fitness journey, not a fitness race. The most important thing is consistency. Just focus on being consistent. Once you know what schedule works for you, commit to that schedule. If it’s five days a week then make sure you are doing something physical every one of those days. Even if it’s something small, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. It all ties back to building healthy habits.

Life happens, and when it does you want to be prepared. Having a contingency plan can drastically help in this area. We’ll go further into detail on that in a minute

Motivational Tip #4 – Accountability

Having an accountability partner, well, keeps you accountable. When you’re sharing your journey with someone and you’re doing what you said you would there is the fulfillment that we get, which in turn boosts our motivation to continue in our success. On the flip side when we don’t do what we said, having to tell someone we didn’t follow through is hard and creates negative emotions to the point we try to avoid it. Therefore, we will be more likely to follow through on what we said.

Motivational Tip #5 – Plan For The Unexpected

We covered this a little bit in the being patient section, but, I’d like to go a little further into detail. Sticking with your routine and being consistent is key to your success. Therefore, having a backup workout plan or physical activity you can do in a short amount of time, just in case something comes up and you can’t complete your scheduled workout would be a wise contingency plan. It can be something as simple as walking for 30 minutes, or even dancing for 15! The important thing is to get your body moving, and being consistent with your routine.

Motivational Tip #6 – Keep It Fun

Nobody wants to do something that’s not fun. In fact, I would argue lack of fun is a major reason why some people do not maintain a regular fitness routine. The best routine is the one that your actually going to stick to, So, make sure whatever fitness activity you engage in, make it fun and keep it fun. Try new things, don’t be afraid to switch it up every now and then.