Many people do exercise when they are motivated to do it. But motivation doesn’t last. Soon they run out of motivation, start to get inconsistent with the exercise, and quit it. It’s a problem for us all. The solution is to not depend upon motivation and turn exercise consistently into a habit.
Wanting and having to exercise are two different things. Wanting to exercise doesn’t last long, and having to exercise helps you to exercise even when you don’t want to. From now on, you will have to exercise consistently to turn it into a habit. Having a habit of exercise will help you to exercise even without motivation with no effort, and you will exercise consistently.
So, How to build the habit of working out or exercising consistently?
On a fundamental level, we develop a habit of something if we do it regularly at the same time under the same situations daily. It’s not easy to do exercise, which is boring to us without seeing any results. Many people face problems with motivation while developing it into a habit. Here are three excellent ways to make it easy to exercise consistently and turn it into a habit. Remember, when we come to the practice of exercise, quantity doesn’t matter consistency matters.
Make it Easy for You to Start.
Habit is behaviour or action you repeat regularly without struggling. In other words, it’s the thing you repeatedly do. To develop a habit, you must do the same, repeatedly exercising daily to make it up into a habit. In other words, You won’t be able to make a habit if you don’t start consistently. You have to start consistently to exercise consistently.
Starting is the hard part. So, it would help if you made starting exercise more effortless for you to develop its habit easily. Making rituals and routines make it easy for you to start. If you choose to exercise anytime you are free, it will undoubtedly be hard to get that time most days, and you will skip or become inconsistent.
Just like getting up and going to work, make exercise part of your routine. You can do it by scheduling your routine for the coming week or month. You can set your intentions to exercise for next week by filling out the following sentence.
For the next week, I will exercise at [Time] at/in [Place] daily.
Filling this sentence out helps you to set a routine for your exercise and make it easier for you to consistently get started as it becomes part of your routine and timetable. One research shows that people who fill out the above sentence are 2 to 3 times more likely to exercise in the long run. This psychological concept is implementation intentions.
Start Ridiculously Small
The best way to develop regular exercise in our have is to start small. Starting small helps to make starting easy and allows you to exercise when you are low on motivation and willpower. In other words, start with something so easy that it is hard to say no.
For example, if you want to hit the gym daily but have no motivation. Try having a gym as near you as possible and goal for just hitting the gym for 20 minutes, “I will only go for 15 minutes.” It will be hard to say no to just 15 minutes compared to 1.5 hours.
Here is an effective strategy to overcome procrastination and get started quickly: the 2-minute rule. Focus on getting started in 2 minutes rather than the whole workout.
Here is how I tackled my low motivation level to start running. I considered just waking up and putting shoes on as my task complete of running and me being consistent when I am low on willpower. These 2 minutes usually get me out of procrastination and help me start my running exercise and stay consistent. I developed this habit now. I still go for short runs when I am low on motivation because consistency matters more.
Focus on the habit and then the Results
When we start editing, going gym, running or doing any exercise, we typically look for results. Most people set goals like “I want to look jacked in 6 months” or “I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months.”
Umm! This approach can be proven wrong in the long run. Focusing on results might demotivate you often, get you off track and make you inconsistent. It’s better to focus on the system rather than the results. Results shouldn’t matter at the start when you are trying to get it into a habit.
What matters most in the start is developing a new routine that you will stick to, not the results you get. For example, in the first six months of the gym, your primary focus should be consistency and not missing workouts than the progress you make. Once you become a person who exercises regularly, then you can worry about making progress and improving. That time, working out will become your lifestyle, and demotivation will not be a hurdle.
Focus on your habit, how much you are consistent with your exercise, no matter how much progress you are making and how much exercise you are doing. Consistency and habit are your priority to get the most out of habit in the long term.
