Even though I mostly enjoy working out, I don’t do it just for fun. This surprises people, who assume that I have no problem motivating myself to work out because I am a Trained Professional. Turns out I am human, too. All of us, me included, work out for our own reasons. There are some people out there who run or lift or whatever because they really love the thing itself, but the rest of us have to find other encouragement to hit the gym.
Some reasons are more effective than others. Research strongly suggests, and my experience confirms, that the best motivations are positive ones. Put another way, if shame, meanness, cultural pressure, fear, and screaming worked, we’d all be thin and fit already. What we need is the connection between our workouts and the things we deeply want in our lives.
Those deep wants don’t have to be actually deep—if we really want to be hot/gorgeous/thin out of personal vanity, that can be super motivating because we can see the link between showing up at the gym and how we look in that bikini. Of course, they can also plumb the very depths of our souls: we can work out to find peace, to live longer and better, to keep up with our kids or grandkids, or to reach the literal mountaintop.
So let’s ask the questions: what do we want and how does that link up to getting today’s workout done?
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