We can all attest to the difficulty of actually getting up to workout. It’s much easier to keep working, scrolling on your phone, or just staring at the ceiling than to exercise sometimes. When you find yourself in this conundrum follow these steps to get yourself out of that slump!
5-Second Rule
Procrastination seems to be the root of all our daily problems. When tasks come up that we don’t particularly want to do, it’s easy to procrastinate. The first step to starting any task needs to be a split-second decision to do so. This is where the 5-second rule comes into play. The moment you feel yourself hesitate to do a task, countdown 5-4-3-2-1-GO and get up to complete that action. This can be utilized for your fitness routine. Schedule time in your day to workout and when that time arrives use the 5-second rule to get the burst of energy you need to start.
Give Yourself 10 Minutes
Once you get a burst of energy to get your workout started, you might find that you still are lacking some motivation to workout. The 5-second rule is perfect to get you up and moving quickly, but it doesn’t get you the incentive to actually exercise. The thought of doing a 30-minute to an hour-long workout can be daunting. The key is to give yourself 10 minutes. If you say you’ll workout for 10 minutes, it’s much easier to reach this goal and most likely surpass it. When you begin working out, you might realize how strong you feel and end up working out for 30 minutes. Listen to your body and honor what it is telling you, but sometimes you need to push yourself. The hardest part is starting a workout, so set a goal of just 10 minutes and see how you feel once that time is up. You will never regret bringing movement to your body, so what’s the worst that can happen if you only exercise for 10 minutes?
Discipline
One of the biggest misconceptions about fitness is that you need motivation to workout. Motivation is having a strong reason to act or accomplish something. Motivation is inspiring at the moment, but extremely fleeting. Discipline is to train oneself to perform a task in a habitual way. Discipline is all about action and gives you control over the task you’re training yourself to do. When you see people working out every day you most likely ask yourself “how do they have the motivation?” The secret is that it’s not about motivation, it’s about discipline. If you want to have a fitness schedule where you workout 4 times a week, every single time that it’s time to workout you need to push yourself to do it. This doesn’t mean ignoring how you feel that day and hurting yourself, but it is how you build discipline. If you scheduled an hour workout but you don’t feel great that day, still show up to workout but implement the 10-minute rule. Even if you only show up for 10 minutes every time you scheduled a workout, this is building that discipline. Motivation will flow in and out of your life, but if you build discipline in your life you are much more likely to complete the tasks you set.
Give Yourself Grace
Another important aspect of working out is giving yourself grace. Let’s say that you do the 5-second rule, you workout for 10 minutes, but find yourself lacking the motivation to do more. That is completely fine because your fitness journey should be about balance. When you feel like you can push yourself further in your health journey, then go for it! When you feel overwhelmed and cannot live up to the standards that you set for yourself, then give yourself grace. Allow yourself to feel those emotions and realize that you are human. Some days you may feel strong enough to do it all and you might crush all your fitness goals. Some days you might not be able to check off any of those daily goals, and that is ok. Take advantage of the good days by getting tasks done, and take advantage of the bad days by giving yourself a mental and physical break. Be proud of all the wonderful things that you accomplish no matter how small.
