Let’s be honest: It’s easier to feel motivated to do something when told by someone else to do it. That’s why there are bosses at workplaces. It’s also the reason some people can’t venture out alone and start their own businesses. When you don’t feel motivated, even something that you are obliged to do become difficult to accomplish. For instance, you have probably heard a student say, I need help to get my homework done. That’s because they don’t have the motivation to do homework.
Similarly, starting a new health regime is one thing and sticking to it is another thing. People often say that getting fit and maintaining fitness is in the mind. It’s something that is largely dependent on motivation. What they don’t mention is that the human mind is always disobliging. It doesn’t always do what you want it to do. In fact, it seems like it does the opposite of what you want. For instance, the 5:00 am alarm sounds. But, instead of putting on your sporting attire and heading out, your mind and body are taken over by something else. You enter the sporting spin zone. You waste several minutes trying to justify why you should not engage in your sporting activity today. This is an indication that you are no longer motivated to engage in your favorite sport. So, how do you stay motivated for sport every day?
It’s true that the people around you can be your source of motivation. But, not everybody can motivate you to engage in your sport every day. For instance, some people think that fitness teachers, celebrity gurus, and personal trainers can motivate them to work out every day. Unfortunately, these people have endorphins addiction. Thus, they don’t know much about the life of a sofa-based curmudgeon that wants to change but sometimes doesn’t want to. One example of a technique to stay motivated for the sport that sounds good to most people is rewarding oneself. Unfortunately, several studies have shown that extrinsic motivation doesn’t work. In fact, it makes exercise feel more unpleasant. On the contrary, your brain needs subtle manipulations.
Here are 5 things that I do to motivate myself for sport every day:
Setting Reasonable Goals
You are convinced that your sport is important. Exercise may feel very important to you for varied reasons. For instance, you may not want to deal with health issues that are associated with lack of exercise. But, this can lead to setting ambitious goals that will eventually lead to avoidance since they will intimidate you. You may also feel like you should wait to have enough free time to engage in your sporting activity.
But, if you engage in your favorite sport alone, you can easily fall into a slump. Therefore, you need goals to keep you going. Start with small goals depending on your current capacities. Set weekly miles, swim lengths, and divide them by half. Work upwards gradually from there. Your new goals might seem laughable but they won’t intimidate you.
You can also sign up for a sporting event or race as a motivator or goal. Engaging in marathons or half marathons is a sure way to challenge oneself and have fun. Nevertheless, having goals is a great way to stay motivated for sport every day because you will have something to work towards. Thus, you won’t be exercising just because you have to.
Stretching Myself and Measuring Achievements
This is very important when it comes to intrinsic motivation. Ideally, choose a sporting activity that enables you to measure your progress. For instance, you can choose a sport that enables you to develop a new skill that you didn’t have initially. It can also be a sporting activity that allows you to set and reach significant milestones in terms of strength and endurance. That way, you will feel rewarded by your sporting activity once you achieve a milestone. Thus, you won’t need to compensate yourself because the sporting activity will reward you.
When you want to stretch yourself and measure your progress, you will stick to a sporting schedule. For instance, you will want to exercise on specific days every week. You will stick to a workouts calendar the way you would do with other appointments. This might seem unnecessary at first but once you start reaching your milestones, you will move from optional to must-do. And, when you know that you are destined to achieve a milestone if you maintain a sporting routine, you will not want to miss any exercising date on your calendar.
Being Motivated By Losses
Sometimes, you need to be pushed to achieve your sporting goals. A nice way to do this is to reframe an incentive. Research has shown that when financial incentives are reframed, people tend to exercise more and eat right. That’s why there are apps for fitness accountability. These apps let users set goals and if they do not meet them, they part with their hard cash. Since the payouts are attached to bank accounts, backing out is a less tempting idea. The flip side of the apps is that if you meet your fitness goal, you will win your money back.
The idea is that if you engage in your sporting activity, you will gain something new but if you don’t, you risk losing. So, instead of promising yourself a trip if you engage in your sporting activity routinely, buy a ticket and let a partner or friend keep it and tear it up if you don’t meet your sporting goal.
Resetting Mental Boundaries
Comically, we are susceptible to the way we tend to divide time in mind. For instance, you may say that attending spinning classes appeals to you more if exercise sessions include a hot shower or if there is a cappuccino towards the end of each session. But, you need to reset mental boundaries.
What’s more, sporting should not be just about the way you look. You will feel more motivated to engage in sporting activities if you stop working out for physical appearance. In fact, if you engage in your favorite sport just because you want to look good, you will end up giving up if you don’t meet your expectations after some time.
Therefore, focus on small achievements like losing body weight by 5%, increasing the push-ups that you make every week, and running a mile nonstop, among others. Feel amazing whenever you make such achievements and even share them with your friends. Thus, don’t focus on major goals only because if you don’t achieve them, you will end up being frustrated. Instead, try micro-goals that enable you to celebrate even the smallest victory along the way.
Getting Support
De-motivating, internal dialogue can kill your desire to engage in sporting activities even when you know you should. Inspirational quotes can be great when it comes to rekindling fitness commitment. Music can be that melodic path that will get you into a fitness groove. These are great to have in your pocket anytime you need a song or mantra that will get you through your last reps. However; there are other ways to get support and motivation to engage in your favorite sporting activity.
Though there are individuals that opt to engage in solo workouts, sometimes is good to be pushed by a motivation department. That’s why some people schedule routine workouts with a group or a friend. Generally, you will most likely not hit snooze or go home for a night when you know that you have left a partner out there engaging in some sporting activities.
Naturally, getting out there to exercise when there are other people doing it or being part of a sporting group motivates you to get off that couch. In fact, it makes some people excited about their fitness journey. That’s because you get people to talk to and you push each other while celebrating the victories that you make together.
Even a supportive friend, family member or partner is motivating. When you tell them that you will participate in an upcoming sporting activity like racing, you will most likely not slack off your training because you know that they will be there cheering you on.
Get Started
If you are no longer motivated to engage in your favorite sporting activity every day or if sporting is no longer fun as it used to be, you need to start all over again. Many people love sporting when starting out but the motivation and love for sports becomes a burden after some time. Sometimes, you may feel tired, lack the right mood, or feel sick. Unfortunately, sporting is mostly associated with negative things like losing weight, fending off a disease, or building a better body. Even for paid sportsmen, love for sport can become something they dread. It can become work at some point. Thus, it’s easy to lose sight of the good things that come with sporting. But, research has shown that making sporting something fun keeps a person moving.
Of course, it’s natural for motivation to wane due to daily obstacles. For instance, nobody wants to sit in city traffic for hours going to a sporting field or gym. You also don’t want to be late for a business meeting just because you woke up to engage in a sporting activity. Thus, it’s normal for motivation to wane. But, you should attack your obstacles head-on. For instance, you can wake up earlier than usual to exercise before you go to a business meeting. You can also ride a bike to your workplace to compensate for your actual sporting activity.
Train Your Mind
When it comes to motivation to exercise, you have a decision to make. You can press snooze when the alarm sounds or pop out of your bed and engage in a sporting activity. You can go sporting after work or hang out with your friends at your favorite joint during the happy hour. It’s all about the decision that you make and how you train your mind to respond.
The moments when you stare down at your sporting sneakers, you try to rouse the left prefrontal cortex. This is the part of your brain that has the willpower elements. People that exercise on regular basis have an added advantage. That’s because their brains are capable of anticipating the benefits of sweat sessions. With positive reinforcement, such people are likely to make the right decision at such moments.
But, if this is the point where you derail, it is wise to get external assistance or motivation. For instance, you can register for a local race or schedule sporting sessions with your friend. Thus, you avoid depending on your willpower only. You can also use daily chores or non-exercise activities to ensure the optimal cooperation of your prefrontal cortex. For instance, you can include making the bed each morning a routine. Essentially, willpower can be built the way muscles are built. That’s because willpower can be strengthened by doing even the things that seem minor.
Make the Decision
You probably have a friend that never misses their sporting sessions no matter how hectic their schedules are. These are people that are always focused on their sporting activities after classes. They love talking about their favorite sports and the milestones that they are making. It’s true that such people may seem a little obsessive about their sports. But, we definitely envy them.
Bear in mind the fact that the recommended time to engage in physical activity is currently a minimum of 150 minutes every week. That’s around 20 minutes every day. But, many adults do not meet this goal. That’s because some people claim that they don’t have time to engage in sporting activity or they lack motivation.
However, everybody can become obsessed with their favorite sporting activity. Whether you are a student, an employee, or a business person, you can still find time and motivation to engage in your favorite sporting activity. If you are a student for instance with many assignments to complete, you can seek for help of a homework expert to complete the assignment and hit the gym. Thus, anybody can try the five things discussed in this article to get motivation for sport every day.
