11 Creative tips to overcome lack of motivation to exercise
Exercise Motivation – what to do when we just don’t feel like it.
I always say I’m naturally motivated like 5% of the time. The rest of the time – I’ve gotten really good at doing it anyways.
Losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires more than just setting eating, exercise and fitness goals – it’s about overcoming a lack of motivation, nurturing intrinsic drive, and learning to get yourself moving even when motivation isn’t there at all – so you can reach your health goals and maintain them for the long run.
As someone who has had a consistent exercise routine for most of my life (even when I wasn’t losing the weight I wanted) I consider myself somewhat of an expert on getting to the gym even when I don’t feel like it. Below I’ll share some of my best tips for workout motivation so you leave with strategies to maintain a regular exercise program.
These simple tips (if you follow them :)) can help you build new habits, reach your weight loss goals, and feel more confident that you’ll follow through with what you say you’re going to do – starting with exercise. And when we can do that – with patience, persistence and consistency, we can accomplish anything!
11 Creative tips to overcome lack of motivation to exercise
1. Understand why We Struggle With lack of Motivation in the first place
The Motivational Triad – we’re Fighting Against our Brain
The motivational triad is a concept in psychology that explains our brain is always working towards three goals – seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, and conserving energy. Think of it like our brain’s GPS system for staying safe and ensuring we have enough energy. It will do anything it can to help us reach those goals. Aka, give us 100001 excuses for why we shouldn’t do anything but lay on the coach!
While this used to be necessary to help us survive and thrive, it no longer is, and our brain gets confused. Anytime we set out to accomplish a goal or something we haven’t yet done before that requires hard work – mental and physical, we are working in the complete opposite direction of this motivational triad and the way our brain is wired. THIS is why it feels so hard or nearly impossible sometimes.
So as you can see it’s completely NORMAL for us to feel resistance, lack of motivation and discomfort – and that is the path to growth, evolving and success. When we understand it better and know why it’s happening we can decide to work with it instead of resist it.
Habitual Thinking
The average human has something like 70,000 thoughts a day, and 90% of them are on repeat. Because our thinking creates our feelings, which drives our actions – if we want to be DOING different things than we did yesterday, the week before, etc., we have to learn to think differently. If we have hardwired, habitual thinking that causes us to feel unmotivated, uninterested, hopeless or other negative feelings – our actions will follow accordingly. See below for an example of this.
2. Know we don’t need motivation to take action (and what to rely on instead)
We don’t need motivation to take action! Sometimes I like to say “motivation is a myth” to emphasize this point. We think we need it but we really don’t – it’s just nice to have. What we really need is a feeling that drives action. This that can be anything that works for you – commitment, dedication, determination, etc.
Since we know our thoughts create our feelings which drive our actions and produce our results, we know we can create any of these emotions at any time with our thinking. Sometimes motivation just isn’t there to draw on, but many of the other emotions above are more readily available.
Two of my favorite thoughts to rely on:
- “I committed to this so I’m going to do it”
- “I’ll feel so much better after I do this.”
When I think those thoughts, I feel focused, committed, confident. They are action driving thoughts that helps me push through lack of exercise motivation almost every time.
How you can take action without motivation:
Think of what other action inspiring emotions you can rely on when you don’t feel motivated.
What thoughts can you think to create those emotions? Write them down or put them in your phone. Try them out the next time you need some extra mental fuel and see how it goes. Sometimes it takes time to develop your own “power sentence” but keep practicing and eventually you’ll find it.
Every time you show up when you don’t feel like it, you’re building a habit. Eventually with enough repetition, it will be easier to do than not to do, and your brain will fight you a lot less – because it will know you’re not going to give in and bail on yourself. Keep this in mind every time you make your choice to follow through or not. Which habit do you want to build?
3. Have Clarity, Decision and Commitment (Ahead of time)
It’s a whole lot harder to stay motivated to do something if we don’t know exactly what IT is!
The first step in overcoming a lack of motivation is to set CLEAR realistic short-term and long-term goals. Break your journey into manageable milestones to stay motivated along the way. The first thing I always work with clients to do is get really clear on three things when it comes to goals:
- Long term vision for their health (mine is to be the healthiest and best version of myself)
- Short term goal (ex. lose 10 lbs.)
- Their WHY (intrinsic motivation – more on this below)
- Their clear plan to reach these goals? (actions, thoughts and feelings – what are we doing, when and where?)
The second part of this is to 100% decide and commit to the goal and plan ahead of time. This is key because we are using our prefrontal cortex which is the decision making part of our brain. When we do this it’s much easier to follow through later on in the moment, when our primal brain wants to sleep in and eat pizza and cookies (motivational triad). It’s also a whole lot harder to drum up motivation AND still have to figure out what workout your doing, where, etc. if the plan is already in place all you have to do in the moment is get yourself there and do it.
4. Find Your Intrinsic Exercise Motivation – what’s your WHY?
This is probably what I consider the most important piece as it’s creating our own motivation versus relying on it appearing from an external source. It also drives our commitment and consistency and helps us stay on track. If we don’t have a compelling reason to drive us forward, we won’t move, especially when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient. (Like at 5am when we have a workout planned and it’s snowing outside..eek)
If you read above you now know our thinking creates our feelings, which drives out actions and leads to our results. So to feel motivated – we have to think motivating thoughts! (And when we can’t drum up motivation, we can rely on commitment, dedication or another action inspiring emotion).
How to create your own motivation – your real why
- Ask yourself what achieving these goals will mean for your physical health, mental health, and overall quality of life – why do you really want it?
- One great way to determine your real WHY if you’re feeling stuck – set a timer on your phone and list out as many reasons as you can for why you want to exercise and reach your weight loss or fitness goal. When you’re done, read through the list and see if any of your reasons create an action inspiring emotion (one that makes you want to get up and go workout!).
- Envision yourself in a situation where you struggle and the idea of exercise seems like an impossibility – rehearse using your “why” phrase. How do you feel? Is your why stronger than your why not?
Once you’ve identified what your intrinsic motivation is, or any of your “power thoughts” write them down, look at them every day, make a thought habit of repeating them to yourself when you know motivation may be lacking.
5. Apply The 10-Minute Rule
When exercise motivation levels are low, try this – commit to just 10 minutes of exercise. Once you start, you’ll often find the hardest part is getting going and you’ll end up completing your workout. The other thing I like to do is ask myself which I would rather – just do it for 30 minutes or think about it for the entire day? I would way rather do it, get it done and off my mind, have actually made progress towards my goals and alleviate that mental bandwidth. It’s a win-win!
6. Leverage Accountability
Using external and internal accountability can be really helpful. Starting out with a workout buddy or a personal trainer can help naturally boost motivation, making it easier to stick to your exercise routine. However – I think working on self accountability along the way is just as important. What happens if your workout partner doesn’t show up or your contract with your personal trainer ends? When we rely on other people – we always have to rely on other people. I encourage you to develop the skill and habit of following through with what you say you’re going to do for YOU, and then having the accountability buddy is just for fun and an added bonus – not something you NEED.
7. Explore New Exercise Classes and workouts
Keep your exercise motivation high by trying different types of workouts or check out a new fitness class. Classpass is great for this! Variety keeps things interesting and prevents workout boredom. There are SO many different types of exercise out there – I always tell clients to do something effective and enjoyable for them for this phase of life.
For example, I used to love HIIT workouts and barre, and now I really enjoy strength training and walking. Just because we see everyone else doing a certain type of workouts and getting results doesn’t mean we have to do the same thing. What’s more important than the perfect workout or routine – being CONSISTENT with it! If you can find something that checks both boxes – you will find yourself showing up more often leading to better results. Not sure what you like or think you don’t like anything? Make a list of 10 different classes you would like to try and set a goal of trying them all. Which one do you like BEST out of all of them, or hate the least? 🙂
8. Get New Workout Gear (optional, but hey..if it works)
Ok, so you don’t haave to do this…but it does kind of help, haha. Sometimes getting a new pair of sneakers, new yoga pants, new gym bag or a cute new tank can be motivating. Probably because I just want to wear them, and once I have them on I might as well go workout! But if it works, I say let’s just let it work.
There is some psychology to back this up if you think back to number three and the thought model: thinking – feelings – actions It works because we are THINKING “I can’t wait to wear this” leading to motivation or excitement and going to the gym. I would keep this is a bonus tip to add one and not something to use everyday, unless of course your budget allows 🙂
9. Track Your Exercise Progress + Set Mini Milestones
Keep track of your workouts and achievements to maintain motivation. Seeing your progress can be a powerful motivator to keep going. For me, having a set goal number of workouts that I want to complete each week is key. That way I know when I wake up and I have two left, and two days left – I have no choice but to go because I want to hit my goal. it’s also helpful to track what your doing, how consistent you are so you can measure against the results you want. We can’t tell what’s working if we don’t have accurate (and consistent) data to measure against.
Grab my free Healthy Habit Checklist here.
10. Celebrate ALL the wins!
While we want to remain focused on our overall weight loss vision and goal, sometimes progress can be slow and/or things don’t go exactly as planned. Every day I encourage you to intentionally focus your brain in the positive/productive direction by specifically thinking about what IS working and what IS going well, even when it seems like nothing. Thinking back to #2 – our thinking drives all things. The practice of redirecting our brain from the negative and unhelpful to the positive and productive is what truly creates long term motivation.
11. Focus on How You’ll Feel When your done
I practice this almost every.single.day. when my alarm goes off and the literal LAST thing I feel like doing is going to the gym. I visualize how I will feel when I’m done, and how I will feel halfway through the day if I do the workout, and if I don’t. 99% of the time, this with the other tips above gets me out of bed and to the gym!
So next time you’re not feeling motivated to exercise, reflect back on these tips and try some of them out and let me know what you think! Have others that work for you to maintain exercise motivation or get to the gym without it? Share them below!
Related: 12 Positive and Powerful Affirmations for Weight Loss
