Did you know 25% of people who buy a gym membership never actually go?
Perhaps you fall into this category? Or maybe you purchased home workout equipment or a new wardrobe of gym clothes instead but still find yourself procrastinating?
Like you, many people have the best intentions and wish to become healthier, stronger, fitter, and leaner but lack the motivation necessary to get started on this journey.
In this article, we will be unpacking why you don’t feel motivated to exercise and the four simple yet powerful steps to achieving a happier, healthier mind, body, and soul.
So that not only will exercising become what you do, it will become very much a part of who you are.
Let’s get started on this exciting journey to discover your newfound love of exercising…
Why Can’t I Get Motivated to Exercise?
Before we begin exploring how to take action towards our goal, it’s important to understand the real reason behind the common lack of motivation to exercise. So let’s take a look back before we begin to move forwards.
As tribal people, our bodies were used how they were meant to be. We were hunter-gatherers, and our survival depended on our ability to move our bodies and be physically active so we could source food and water, and build shelters.
Today, our modern lifestyles in developed countries mean we no longer have these needs. Our TVs can entertain us from our couches, Amazon can deliver to our door, and we can order our food online and have it on our plate within the hour.
So it’s clear that as our survival no longer relies on us remaining physically active, exercising now needs to be a much more conscious decision.
But sometimes there are subconscious blocks that get in the way of making this decision. Often, we are not even aware of this.
So to discover what this block is and also how to overcome it, we must look at what lies beneath…
The Real Truth Behind Why You Don’t Exercise
I’ve been a therapist my whole adult life, and I’ve helped thousands of clients to overcome their intense lack of motivation to exercise and become healthy.
These people dealt with destructive eating habits, lacked the drive to exercise, and let their bodies decline to an incredibly unhealthy state.
My clients felt as though no one understood why they were allowing themselves to be so overweight, and worse of all, they didn’t know either.
They all felt alone, ashamed, and helpless about their ability to make a change.
In reality, these people all shared the same issue—they all feared rejection.
Is the Fear of Rejection Stopping You From Exercising?
Remember the statistic I gave you at the start of this article? 25% of people who buy a gym membership never actually go. Well, there is a very clear reason for this…
It all comes down to the untrue belief, “I am not enough.”
You may tell yourself you’re going to the gym in the morning, but you start to imagine what that will be like. You start to show your mind pictures you have imagined of the gym bunnies looking at you in disgust, laughing and snarling at you for entering their territory.
When in reality, no one will be staring at you. People in the gym are far too concerned about what they are doing and their own insecurities and goals to judge you for yours.
But you allow this fear of rejection to intensify until you no longer go to the gym. You never do. You tell yourself you aren’t good enough, fit enough, healthy enough, or attractive enough to attend the gym.
Of course, it’s so easy to say you should have gone to the gym or that you could have gone for a run. That’s because it’s far less painful than actually doing the exercise and putting yourself at risk of rejection or working out for a day and seeing no results. In this way, the fear of rejection is really also a fear of failure.
The fear of rejection is the most common fear on the planet, and it is extremely powerful. Luckily, it’s an issue that you can absolutely overcome… and come out thriving on the other side.
This leads us to the first step in learning how to get and stay motivated to exercise. Let’s dive in…
Step 1: Overcome Your Fear of Rejection
The first step in getting and staying motivated to exercise is to overcome your fear of rejection. To do this, you must learn something very important…
The only person who can truly reject you is you.
This power lies solely with you. So start identifying the ways in which you are doing this.
For example, lying on the sofa binge-watching Netflix while snacking on potato chips is actually you rejecting yourself. You’re denying your body regular physical activity that would give you the opportunity to become leaner, stronger, and healthier.
Once you recognize this, you can tell yourself the truth—no one has the power to reject you but yourself.
The next time you recognize that you are rejecting yourself, make a change. Choose to give yourself every opportunity to become happier and healthier.
To help you implement this in your life, we have to learn how to use the incredible power of words.
Step 2: Explore the Power of Words
The words we say and the words we tell our minds are extremely powerful, forming the blueprint for our lives.
For example, if you say…
“I would have a heart attack if I tried to run a mile.”
“It would kill me to have to go to the gym in the morning before work.”
“It would destroy me to exercise for a month and see no results.”
Your mind receives these words, listens to them, and believes them.
The result? Your mind tells you not to do it—it actively avoids it.
When you tell your mind you can’t be bothered to exercise, “It’s too tiring, it’s too hard, it’s too painful,” then your mind says, “Okay, rest more, watch more of your series, eat more snacks.”
Therefore, the secret is to tell yourself better things, and it will do better things for you.
Tell your mind you are excited about exercising, that you love how it makes you feel, and that you can’t wait to do it more.
Make your mind work for you, not against you.
To do this, you must start to choose your words carefully to let your mind know what you want. From now on, tell yourself repeatedly…
“I want to exercise.”
“I can’t wait to exercise.”
“I choose to exercise.”
“I want it, I want it, I want it.”
“I love exercising, it makes me feel amazing.”
“I have chosen to exercise, and I’ve chosen to love it.”
Your mind learns through repetition, so tell yourself these words repeatedly to wire in and fire in habits of success. Do this until they no longer are what you do, they become who you are.
Eventually, you will find yourself going to the gym. You will wake up motivated to stretch. You will go outside on your lunch break and walk around the park.
And when you’re doing these things, tell yourself again.
“I love this.”
“I want this.”
“I’ve chosen to do this, and I’ve chosen to feel great about it.”
Because the truth is, your mind doesn’t know whether what you tell it’s right or wrong. It can’t decipher what is true or false. It can only listen to the words you tell it and the pictures you show it.
By doing this, we can use the power of words to create a new, updated blueprint for our lives. One that leads you to love exercise and brings you immense feelings of joy, happiness, and pleasure. All because you know you are doing everything your body needs to become leaner, fitter, stronger, and healthier.
Once you’ve mastered your words, you can begin to reinforce them through this next handy mind hack…
Step 3: Delay Gratification
As a kid, did your parent ever tell you if you did your chores, you could go outside and play?
It’s parenting 101 to teach our children that they will get rewarded for it if they do something good. But as we get older, this discipline often gets pushed aside and leads to overindulgence.
For example, we may think, “I need to exercise, but my favorite show is on.”
You may then decide to watch your show and exercise later. But as your show ends and the hour has passed, you think, “Now I’m hungry. I’ll have to eat before I work out.”
The point is, you never get around to exercising because you’ve already rewarded yourself. So now you have no motivation to get your gym clothes on because you have nothing to look forward to after.
When you reward yourself first, you don’t feel as though you have earned it. So you lie to yourself and say you didn’t really enjoy that episode. Or you tell yourself your dinner wasn’t as tasty as usual.
This is because you feel bad. Truthfully, you know you should have exercised—you should have done this first.
Therefore, to overcome your lack of motivation to work out, you must put discipline back into your life and begin to delay gratification—it’s called the “carrot and stick” technique.
You can still watch your favorite show, but tell yourself you’re going to earn it by doing half an hour of floor exercises first.
Or, if you are looking forward to having a delicious dinner, make that your reward for going to the gym.
Tell yourself…
“I want to exercise and earn my reward.”
“I love exercising before I enjoy my reward.”
“I choose to exercise first and reward myself second, and I’ve chosen to feel great about it.”
Then, when you’ve done the work, reward yourself.
When you watch your show, you will enjoy it so much more.
When you sit down to eat your food, it will taste so much more delicious.
We’re all wired to work for rewards, so when we delay gratification and earn what we enjoy, we thrive off the amazing sense of accomplishment we gain.
Step 4: Harness the Power of Self-Hypnosis
The above steps are all really effective ways of making exercise a part of your life. But sometimes we need a little extra help to remove the blocks that remain deep within us.
As the founder of Rapid Transformational Therapy® (RTT®), I know the true impact self-hypnosis can have on updating and reshaping what lies beneath.
This is why I created this exciting Stay Motivated to Exercise self-hypnosis audio using RTT® techniques to tune out your conscious mind and focus your subconscious.
Once you are in a state of deep awareness, this audio helps you update your beliefs around your relationship with exercise, nurturing a mindset where you choose to exercise and you choose to love it.
The mind learns by repetition, and so, as you listen to these words, they will stop becoming what you do and they soon become who you are.
Make time to listen to this audio undisturbed and invest in your health and happiness by reprogramming your current beliefs around exercising for potentially life-changing results.
Welcome a New, Healthier and Happier You
Ready to become the best version of yourself you can possibly be?
Imagine feeling full of energy, your skin glowing, your muscles lean and healthy.
That could be your reality when you put in motion these four simple steps.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, find time, make time, set aside time to exercise. Each day, as it becomes more familiar to you and part of your routine, you will become excited and look forward to exercising.
As you move towards your goal of feeling happy, amazing, fit, strong, lean, and healthy, that goal will simultaneously start to move towards you too.
Do this one wonderful thing for your body and witness how your body thanks you. Because when you take care of your body, your body takes care of you.
Download my Stay Motivated to Exercise self-hypnosis audio and start making exercise a part of your life today.
