April/May 1996

Motivation-Getting Ourselves To Exercise
By Tami Anastasia

The latest health advice from the Surgeon General and the Center for Disease Control suggests that adults should exercise 30 minutes or more every day of the week. This latest health information is not likely to be welcome news for those who already have difficulty motivating themselves to exercise. If you are one of those individuals, the following insights may help you understand what's really keeping you from exercising and what changes you can make to increase your motivation.

The number one reason people give for not exercising is simply a lack of time. But is lack of time really the root of the problem? Time is not an issue when exercise is a priority or when we have a desire to work out. The difficulty in getting ourselves to exercise goes deeper.

Replace Erroneous Beliefs

If time isn't the problem, what is? In a word, motivation. Whether we exercise or not depends on how we think about exercise and whether or not we have the motivation to do it. Consider the definition of motive: an emotion, desire, or physiological need that can incite one to action. Any course of action begins with motive and intent. To establish an enduring motive and intent, you may first need to let go of your belief in the veracity of certain popular myths about exercise, including:

1. I have to exercise to lose weight.
2. If I'm not losing weight, I'm doing it wrong.
3. There is a perfect exercise prescription that produces perfect results.
4. I have to exercise a certain way for it to be effective.
5. If I'm having fun, it's not considered exercise.

Replace erroneous beliefs, which often undermine the most sincere efforts, with new ways of thinking about exercise, such as:

1. Exercise improves the quality of my life.
2. Due to my own unique metabolism, there is no perfect exercise prescription for me except the one I am willing to do.
3. My body benefits from all kinds of physical activity.
4. There's nothing wrong with my ability to exercise; only my expectations have been unrealistic.
5. Exercise is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. The more I like it, the more I'll stick with it.

Begin to change your exercise habits by first developing new reasons to exercise (internal motivators) and then by setting reasonable and attainable exercise goals. Place the value of exercise where it belongs: on the physiological and psychological changes that take place inside your body rather than on weight loss or other external factors.

Establish New Reasons to Exercise

The motivation to exercise has to come from within, and it must have personal significance. "To sustain your motivation, an achievement has to fulfill an internal need. Otherwise, something like health is an abstract benefit," said Karen Miller-Kovack, general manager of program development for Weight Watchers International.

Think about what internal needs exercise could meet for you. Make a list. My list includes mental alertness, time alone, opportunity to be outdoors, increased patience, a way to nurture my body, energy boost, absence of illness, and lack of need for medication.

Set Attainable Goals

Try the following goal clarification exercise. Create two columns on a sheet of paper. Label the left side "What I Should Do." List the exercises you think you should do, how hard, how long, and how often. Title the right column "What I Want/Can Do" and write down the exercises you want/can do, how hard, how long, and how often you want/can exercise. The left column represents long-term goals you want to work toward over a 6- to 12-month period (for example, 30 minutes each day). The right column represents a good starting place.

Ask yourself what you want/could do, given your present schedule, that would take the least amount of physical and mental energy (for example, walk 10 minutes twice a week, climb one flight of stairs daily, do floor exercises two to three times a week). Start there. Don't place pressure on yourself to do more until you have a desire to do more. Before you know it, you'll be exercising 30 minutes a day.

Getting yourself to exercise is 95 percent mental and 5 percent physical. Doing something, no matter how small, is better than doing nothing at all.

Tami Anastasia, owner of TAMS, has a Master's Degree in Counseling and over 16 years of experience in the fitness industry. She is a personal health and fitness counselor, motivational speaker on the psychology of healthy living, and author of a forthcoming book.