How to find motivation for sports and training? How to motivate yourself for sports - the best incentives. How to force yourself to exercise every day

The current world dictates its own rules, the pace of life is fast. Everyone is in a hurry somewhere, some are climbing up, others are absorbed in the problems of parents and children. There is no time to stop, take a break, look at your life from the outside. Worries about material well-being and family chores exhaust you, make you vulnerable and unable to work. You move on, not thinking about what bothers you more often, shortness of breath appeared. You think your life is full, although it is no longer so. The first bells appear: overweight, fatigue. Stop! It is necessary to slow down and understand that if you do not take care of your health now, diseases will appear later.
Many people do not think about what a huge potential and what willpower they have. You just need to take the first step, overcome a small barrier. Yes, it is not so easy, but only in the beginning.
It is worth allocating only an hour of time a day to go in for sports, get a little positive and harmony. It is clear to everyone that a healthy lifestyle does not consist only of proper nutrition and sleep, the body needs physical activity. A full life is impossible without sports.
Of course, you all dream of what you will do next Monday, start counting calories, go to bed earlier and much more. This happens under the influence of a momentary impulse, some time passes and everything is forgotten. Passes one Monday, another, and things are still there. Why is this happening? The answer is simple - you are approaching this question incorrectly. Anyone who knows a few elementary secrets has long changed his life. These people live among us. So, let's learn to live in a new way!

Search for motivation

The presence of motivation is the main trump card in undertaking sports. Self-motivation is born in our minds when starting any business, you just need to help yourself. You have to dig and find exactly the grain that will keep you afloat. What do you most want: to be healthy, to be liked by others, to find a soul mate, to lose weight, to change your image, to get a promotion, to get back in shape after pregnancy? Of course, there are many reasons to go in for sports, each has its own.
There are people who were not friends with physical education at school and had a weak C grade. It's OK! There, everyone had to pass the standards, run cross-country against the clock, and all in order to earn a mark. But now you don’t owe anything to anyone, only to your loved one - to be happy.
It is convenient for someone to work out in the gym, watching other people, he understands that he is not alone in striving to be healthy, this is inspiring. Another loves water sports, the best solution for him would be going to the pool 2-3 times a week. Someone cannot imagine their life without music, classes in a dance group will bring joy and lead to the intended goal. Aerobics, jogging in the park, walking around the house, tennis with friends, volleyball on the beach are great solutions to one problem.
Some say they don't have time. Not true, everyone has it, even the busiest. If you find time to communicate with family, colleagues, friends, you will find 3-4 hours a week for yourself. Many found a way out of this situation, began to involve friends in sports, uniting in groups. This is communication, and health benefits, and discussion of the joint results achieved. A reliable partner in such an undertaking is already half the battle. If you have common tasks with this person, it will be more difficult for you to give up training. The circle of common interests perfectly motivates, the spirit of competition appears. It’s already a pity to quit classes, friends will become fit, but you won’t? Never!

The first timid steps towards the goal

So, you have purchased comfortable shoes and necessary clothes, visited a doctor, listened to his recommendations. Congratulations, the first step towards the goal has been taken.
Have you ever imagined how you want to look? Visualizing your desires, provided that you train regularly, is a great motivation. Very often, thanks to the set goal, people turn dreams into reality.
Some resort to different tricks. For example, they weigh themselves and take pictures of themselves in clothing adjacent to the body. They write the start date of training and begin to act. The main thing is to postpone these recorded data for at least 2-4 weeks. I do not advise readers of MirSovetov to weigh themselves every day, this is a mistake of many. After a couple of days, you will not see tangible results, but only get upset and decide that playing sports is not for you. Do not hurry! When a couple of weeks have passed, weigh yourself and take a new photo in the same clothes. Well? Not bad for a start. Face results. Of course, you still don't look like the girl on the cover of the magazine you bought last week. Yes, this is unnecessary.
Every sane person should understand that the 21st century is in the yard, and most of the photos of beautiful models and actresses are photoshopped. Viewing such publications stimulates well, there is a desire to buy the dress that is on the cover of the magazine. Be consistent, do not set yourself impossible goals, assuming that in 1.5 months you will have a model figure and you will lose 30 kilograms. Firstly, it is unrealistic, and secondly, it is unsafe.
The first steps in playing sports should be smooth, you can not give the body a strong load. I want to say to the readers of MirSovetov: the main thing is not how many squats you have done (run meters, danced for minutes), but the fact that you have set aside time for this and are moving towards the goal. In life, often the first small steps lead to big results if they are regular.
Read the biography of any famous athlete, believe me, many had to go through a difficult path, only self-discipline, patience and self-confidence helped them. Unlike them, you do not have to fight for the honor of the country, set world records, you do it only for yourself.
Thanks to the Internet, it became possible to communicate on forums. They are created according to interests, by registering on such a site dedicated to sports, you can find like-minded people, ask questions that interest you, learn about the achievements of others, share your own. This inspires many and gives an additional incentive to action.
One of the key points on the path to a healthy body is the morale and attitude to failure. In the beginning, no one is immune from mistakes, it is important to step over them and move on. Do not lose motivation, under any circumstances. Failure is a completely normal thing in everyone's life. Sometimes a defeat, adequately perceived by you, tempers your character, gives you experience and strength to take the next steps.
Set realistic goals for yourself, do not work out for 5 hours 6 times a week. The body will not cope with such a load, you will get tired, and the desire to exercise will begin to fade. Everything should be within your power, you should like classes, bring satisfaction. You should allocate as much time as possible without prejudice to other interests. Sometimes your free time does not coincide with the schedule of the gyms. This is not a reason to postpone classes until the time when it becomes possible. Many find a way out - they buy home exercise equipment. Their choice is quite wide:, elliptical trainer and others. For some, this is the perfect solution, they are studying and watching their favorite TV shows at the same time.
In order for sport to become a constant companion, one must enjoy it. To do this, it is necessary to clearly distribute the load on the body and in no case force yourself to do what you do not want. Let the training time be less, but better.

Starting a training diary

In order for your plans to be realized, we advise you to keep a training diary. To do this, take a thick notebook or diary, write the date, and opposite the time of class and the number of exercises done.
If you train in the gym, then you have already seen some people have such notebooks where they make notes. It has been proven that keeping a diary increases the effectiveness of classes by 40%.
Record the results of each workout, gradually increasing the load. Thanks to these notes, you will be able to track your improvement, which will become an additional motivation. Do it regularly. Later you will notice how convenient it is.
If you are a modern person, then it would be preferable for you to use the electronic training diary that has appeared on the market.
From the above, you should understand that keeping a diary helps develop a plan of action; build a training regimen, taking into account the characteristics of your body.

Change your mindset and reward yourself for success

A positive attitude and a friendly attitude towards yourself and others are much more productive than. If today you decide that it's time to go in for sports, then for the purpose of motivation, praise yourself for this intention.
Do you remember the last time you encouraged yourself? Can you praise yourself? It used to be thought that it was immodest to praise oneself. In our century, many people have appeared dissatisfied with themselves, with a bunch of complexes. All this is nonsense, you have to love yourself! This does not mean that you should become selfish, praise yourself, but in moderation.
If you started exercising, it is not easy for you mentally and physically, you should praise yourself often and constantly. Yesterday we refused the elevator and went up to the 3rd floor. Well done! A week later already on the 6th. Fabulous! Enjoy the feeling of victory.
You need to reward yourself for everything, do not leave it for later. At the slightest personal achievement, it’s not a sin to pamper yourself.
Love yourself for who you are, with all the flaws. Understand that every flaw that you see in yourself, for many others, is a virtue, your highlight.
Change your outlook, go in for sports, and life will shine with new colors. Perhaps, having achieved certain results, you will meet your soul mate, which you have long dreamed of. Or maybe everything is in order on the personal front, but lately you have been increasingly catching the loving look of your native eyes on yourself. Isn't this the most significant motivation for exercising and keeping fit.
From small victories, brick by brick, the foundation of a healthy and fulfilling life is formed.

We rejoice in a new life

By the way, sport is a great way to break away from TV, computer, bed, food. Try different types of physical activity until you decide which one pleases your soul and body. Look for a new route to walk, a new path to run. Then you will not be bored, because boredom is a sure way to lose motivation.
The moment will come when others will see the changes in your body, even if they are insignificant for you. You will be told. This moment can be a turning point in your life, because you will understand that your efforts were not in vain and sports entered your life forever.

Nowadays, the pace of life is rapidly increasing. Everywhere you look, everyone is in a hurry somewhere, in a hurry, trying to climb to the very top step in the career ladder. And some, on the contrary, are absorbed in family worries and even stop noticing the surrounding reality. With such a rhythm of time, there is no stopping at all. People are exhausted, break down on loved ones. In addition, they lose immunity to diseases that make them unable to work. The fact that health problems begin is signaled by insomnia, headaches, fatigue, and excess weight. That is why you need to stop for a while, think about your health, until it is completely gone.

It is enough to allocate about an hour a day for sports. Such activities will help you maintain a good mood throughout the day. And what a full life can exist without sports?

A person is so arranged that he cannot do without thoughts like: from the next day, from Monday, I will start playing sports, get rid of bad habits, and so on. These are just thoughts, but we need to get down to business! In order to move from thoughts to deeds, several actions are required.

First, you need to find a motivation that will make you go in for sports despite any obstacles. Motivation arises in the mind of a person when he is engaged in some business. Any person, if he wants, will be able to find motivation within himself to take action, the main thing is to start this search. For example, you are not satisfied with the constitution of the body, you have had a bad relationship with physical culture since your school days, you have a desire to please someone. The fact that physical activity slows down the aging process of the body can be a good motivation.

Everyone has time. Finding 3-4 hours a week is not a problem.

Imagine yourself from the outside in the image that impresses you the most. With regular sports, this performance will be the best motivation for you. If the goal is set, you take steps towards it, then your dream will be fulfilled. You can take a picture of yourself for memory, so that later you can compare the photos "before" and "after" sports.

Thirdly, there is no need to rush. The result will not be long in coming, but it will not seem too fast either. Do not drive yourself into a time frame, as this is unrealistic and even unsafe. Start playing sports smoothly, gradually loading your body. Steps towards your goal can be tiny, because the main thing is that these steps are being taken, that you do not stand still, dreaming. When these steps are taken daily, the road to the goal will end faster.

But for a long time you do not study without pleasure. Therefore, fourthly, in order for sport to become part of your lifestyle, you need to enjoy it.

Many lead for more effective workouts. It has long been proven that when a person keeps records of training, this almost doubles the result. In such a diary, they usually record when the training began, how many exercises were done. At each next workout, you need to try to beat the record of the previous lesson. With the help of such a system, you can draw up a training plan taking into account the necessary loads on the body.

There is no doubt that sport is a great method that will make you distract from watching TV, from computer games and other things. Look for interesting routes for walking, work out in the gym or at home, go jogging, most importantly, enjoy it. In this case, you will achieve all your goals. There will come a moment when, coming closer to the mirror, you will see a healthy and fit athlete.

Everyone wants to have a beautiful body, be fit, healthy and attractive to others. But how to start when all the impulses end in excuses and postponing for another time? If you managed to find an effective course for weight loss, and motivation is sorely lacking, we will tell you how to stimulate yourself to play sports.

Here are 18 ways to make you want to exercise.

1. Feelings after a workout
Remember that wonderful feeling of complete satisfaction, pride in yourself, lightness in the body at the end of a workout? Before each lesson, remember this feeling, so it will be easier for you to start.

2. Start with a few minutes
Many are stopped by the thought of long exhausting workouts, so it is difficult to overpower yourself. Start with a few minutes every day. Sports will become a habit, without which you can no longer do. Increase the time of training when you realize that you like it and want more loads.



3. Movies and magazines

Sports films about successful strong people and fitness magazines perfectly motivate to action.

4. Success stories
Success stories are always inspiring. There are people willing to share their experience. If someone succeeded, then everything is real and everyone has a chance to win.



5. Blogs

Follow the blogs of people leading an active lifestyle. So you can get valuable information on nutrition and training with a good example.

6. Encouragement
Reward yourself for your workouts. So there will be an incentive: they worked hard in the hall - they received an award. Buy yourself something beautiful, eat something delicious.

7. New clothes
Imagine that with a new body, you can wear any clothes that you could only dream of before. Well, or again "fit" into your favorite old jeans.

8. Chronic fatigue
Did you notice that you often began to get tired and your energy disappeared somewhere? Fatigue should be the impetus to start exercising, so you will feel a surge of energy and will feel much better.

9. Opportunity to be distracted
During sports, you can not think about everyday issues, which means you can recover after a hard day. Time for reflection for the benefit of the figure!

10. Relationships
If your loved one is not against fitness, with the help of joint training you can diversify your relationship. This is also an additional motivation for two!



11. Friends

Maybe you are not the only one wondering: how to start playing sports? Work out with your friends. This makes it easier to motivate each other and make the sport more fun. To make it more fun, you can choose a game (football, volleyball, tennis).

12. Your photos
Often the results of training are not noticeable, but the photos will help you visually track your changes, continuing the process with pleasure.

13. Continuation of life
How can you not want a long happy life without illness, live to see grandchildren and great-grandchildren, have enough energy to play with them?

14. Blog
Promise in front of everyone on your blog that you are going to lose weight, then there will be nothing left but to do it. Write about your workouts, nutrition, keep an online diary of your own results.



15. Burn bridges

Here's an example for you. One businessman from Las Vegas decided to quit smoking, but he realized that he did not have enough willpower. He decided to place billboards around the city with promises to give $100,000 to anyone who "caught" him with a cigarette. As we understand, the man quit smoking.

16. Inspiring environment
Hang workout schedules, posters, motivational photos everywhere.

17. Positive thinking
Change negative thoughts to positive ones. Instead of moping about bad weather, think about another great day that will make you feel better.

18. Act now!
Act, don't think. Instead of thinking about how to start playing sports, whether you like it or not, get up and do it! Right now, this minute. Remember, even the smallest step brings you closer to your dream!

In the 21st century, harmony and beauty still remain a large number of people who lead a passive lifestyle. They do not go in for sports, but dream of a perfect body.

Such people should know that without physical activity, you will not become the owner of a beautiful figure. But sport has an impact on more than just that.

Why don't people play sports?

To begin with, let's look at the main reasons that make people give up sports:

  1. Laziness. This reason is the most common. Every day we find many excuses: too tired, I will start on Monday, bad weather, etc. But everyone must be aware that this is just indulging their laziness and unwillingness to change.
  2. Lack of time. Modern life makes us work hard and constantly spin like a squirrel in a wheel. For a series of all cases, we cannot find even a couple of hours to do exercises.
  3. Inability to go to the gym. Many of us think that we only need to exercise on simulators and under the guidance of a trainer. This opinion is very erroneous, since it is quite possible to study at home. If the gym is not affordable for you, is far from home or is crowded with people, then arm yourself with dumbbells, look for videos of fitness workouts at home and do it.
  4. "I exercise, but it doesn't help me lose weight." This is a very common misconception. When playing sports, you can burn fat reserves, but at the same time gain muscle mass, due to which everything remains the same. 1 kg of muscle is 3-4 times smaller than the same amount of fat. Everyone around you will notice that you have decreased in volume and got a slender body, even if the weight stands still.

Why is it important to play sports?

Sports have a beneficial effect on health. Thanks to physical activity, you can always stay in good shape. Classes will favorably affect the work of the heart, decorate the vessels, prevent joint diseases and the formation of a blood clot. Great access to oxygen, increases metabolism and improves blood circulation.

Physical activity will keep you beautiful and youthful. Being engaged, you will have a gorgeous body and cause admiration of the opposite sex. Sports can help you get rid of skin problems by increasing the oxygenation of tissues. Also, it has long been proven that sport slows down the aging of our body and preserves it for many years. The skin will become taut, the muscles will be embossed, and health will be stronger.

Sports improve mood. When exercising, a large amount of endorphins is produced, which creates a feeling of happiness. If you suffer from sleep disorders, then sports will forever forget about this problem. After all, endorphins calm our psyche and restore an even and restful sleep. Even daily exercise will allow you to avoid depression and will not let you lose heart. Also, people who play sports are less prone to stress.

Sports have a positive effect on your psychological state. It makes people confident and purposeful. With each lesson, you are getting closer to your goal and develop perseverance and calorie content in yourself. Also, loving your body, you can be more open and successful in life.

New acquaintances. You will find many like-minded people who are also active and love sports. You will make new friends who give you the right advice based on personal experience. And you can meet your soul mate.

How to motivate yourself to workout?

The most important thing for sports is the right motivation. We must constantly spur oneself on and train character, set small and then large goals, gradually achieving them

And for those who can not cope with laziness, we present some ways to motivate:

  • Keep a diary in which you write down your successes, goals, results. Every day, enter the completed exercises, describe your feelings, analyze how much you have achieved lately. You can keep a photo report, as changes are most easily noticeable by external data. Many people who achieve their goal help others by blogging on the Internet or creating their own video blog.
  • Turn sports into fun. There are a million different sports in the world, so you can always choose what just like you. If you don’t want strength exercises, take up dancing or yoga in the future, you can turn your hobby into a professional activity and achieve great success.
  • Most importantly, never forget the goal! She may be the most unexpected. For example, to attract the attention of a person you like, to lose weight, to develop character. Divide all classes into stages and gradually achieve results.

Sports Quotes

As clothiers clean the cloth, knocking it out of dust, so gymnastics cleanses the body. - Hippocrates

The saving force in our world is sports - the flag of optimism still flies over it, here they follow the rules and respect the enemy, regardless of which side wins. - D. Galsworthy

Exercise can replace many medicines, but no medicine in the world can replace exercise. Angelo Mosso

Sport becomes a means of education when it is everyone's favorite pastime. - V. Sukhomlinsky

A person who exercises moderately and in a timely manner does not need any treatment aimed at eliminating the disease. - Avicenna

I want to make it more balanced with the help of gymnastics of the whole body. - Socrates

Remember that sport will positively affect your life. Take care of your appearance and health by adding physical activity to your life. Sport builds your character and allows you to become the person of your dreams. Enough to postpone classes indefinitely, do it right now. Take action!

How to force yourself to play sports, keep a diet, lead a healthy lifestyle? And do you really need to force yourself?

Motivation or incentive?

Let's start with the basics. In fact, there is no such thing as “lack of motivation” at all. Motivation is what we want to do sports for. Being healthy, having a beautiful figure, steel muscles is all motivation. This is our ultimate goal. It either exists (you need it), or it doesn't (you don't need it).

What we need when we say “not enough motivation” or “I want to increase motivation” is STIMULUS. Some kind of magic pendel that will force us to practice.

Motivation is natural, what inspires us. For this we are ready to make some efforts. This is our desire to achieve the goal.

A stimulus is artificial, something we resort to to spur sagging motivation. Certain measures, taking which, we ensure a more effective implementation of our plans. The very word "stimulus" came to us from Ancient Rome, and initially it was the name of the stick used to drive animals.

It is the overseer's stick that we lack when we try to force ourselves to do something.

For example, you want to lose weight. Motivation - to be beautiful, slim, attractive. Great motivation! But losing weight is a long-term goal, “it will be good, but later” and we are far from always ready to take and give up short-term pleasures “it will be good right now (and bad later)”. Starting with optimism, we gradually cool down and start looking for excuses not to exercise and not eat healthy food.

This is where incentives come in. A cool incentive is to bet for decent money, that you will lose a certain number of kilograms. There is no smell of motivation here, because. your goal is not to lose or save money. But the monetary stimulus (and money easily affects our psychological mechanisms) makes us lose weight. Lose weight - or you will lose!

Thus, external incentives are a good way to spur you on if your motivation is weak. But ideally, you should motivate yourself to do things that you don't need any additional incentives to achieve.

How to define such things?

The Right Motivation

When people ask me how I manage to get up at five in the morning every day or spend four hours a day on weekends for training, I answer: "It's all about priorities."

If you really need it, you will get up at four in the morning and train all day. You will starve, and do enemas, and run down the street in your shorts if you really need to. If you don’t need it at all, then you won’t lift a finger for money.

To some extent, we are all equal - each of us has 24 hours in a day. The difference starts with how we manage them, and what matters we have a high priority. And it is precisely for the correct prioritization that we need to know what things we are most motivated to do.

Correct, strong motivation - motivation "when it is very necessary" - includes three essential components.

First: Motivation comes from YOUR and only your needs!

This is what YOU need, not mom, dad, wife, friends or boss. If the need is imposed on you, then the motivation will be weak.

For example, parents send their daughter to a music school. The girl, on the other hand, hates the piano, but wants to rap and post videos on YouTube, even if no one shares this hobby. Guess which of the activities she will have high and which will have low motivation. What will she do in secret from her parents in any free moment, and what will she avoid by all means?

It happens that our true motivation is hidden under several layers of prejudice, “smeared” from childhood. Parents talk about one thing, grandparents talk about something else, teachers talk about a third thing, teachers at a university talk about a fourth thing, a spouse talk about a fifth thing, friends or neighbors talk about a sixth thing… Figure out what you really want in this world over the years it gets more and more difficult, but when you get to the bottom of those things that YOU desperately need, you will never mix up this feeling.

If we talk specifically about the motivation to play sports and lead a healthy and active lifestyle, then everything is not going smoothly. On the one hand, there are very strong, powerful motivations that touch our deepest instincts:

  • deal with the disease in order to survive
  • get in shape/lose weight to be attractive to the opposite sex
  • learn how to run fast and far / lift heavy weights / climb mountains / swim across rivers in order to outdo everyone around you and show your superiority

On the other hand, quick changes do not roll with the body - and it is in this area, more than in any other, that the percentage of refusers is high, who get bored with doing something without seeing quick results. And this is where incentives come in.

Second: Motivation must occupy the right place in the pyramid of needs.

70 years ago, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow created a universal model of human needs, which is still very popular. This is the so-called Maslow's Pyramid. At the base of this pyramid are the most basic human needs, at the top - the sublime. Maslow explained the location of needs in the form of a pyramid by the fact that a person cannot experience high-level needs while he needs more primitive things. If you are hungry or in danger, you will not think about achieving harmony with the outside world.

How is the Maslow pyramid related to motivation? Very simple - if you have not satisfied your basic needs, then in most cases the motivation of higher levels will be weak. That is, if you do not have enough money to pay the next mortgage installment (the second step is security), the motivation to earn this very money will be much higher than the motivation to learn a foreign language (the fifth step is knowledge, skill).

Third: Motivation must be related to pleasure.

Whatever your motivation may be, if the process of achieving the goal is gray, boring and bleak, it will not be strong. We should not only strive for what we like, but also enjoy along the way.

It is positive emotions that “turn on” your main driving force on the way to the goal - the desire to repeat. If you do something and you want to do it again and again, you will never have the thought that you need to somehow force yourself. When we are strongly motivated to work, we go into a state of "flow" where we forget about everything else and give ourselves entirely to what we are doing.

It is worth considering two more components on which the strength of your motivation depends - this is the brain and body:

  1. The less you have to strain your brain, the stronger the motivation. If at the first stage of the path you have to make great mental efforts, puzzling over each step, then there is a high probability that you will quit.
  2. The less you have to strain your body, the stronger the motivation. This is especially true for purposes related to sports and health. Constant overload and overtraining can negate any effort.

Thus, any overload negatively affects your motivation, making it weak.

Obstacles of weak motivation

So, we have dealt with the things that make our motivation strong or weak.

With strong motivation, everything is clear - you will not even think about how to force yourself to do something. You will just do it. For weak motivation, additional incentives are needed in order to overcome a number of obstacles (which, of course, we create for ourselves):

  • I do not have enough time
  • I am constantly tired
  • I have health issues
  • I have nowhere to work
  • I'm bored of being alone

At seminars, self-development trainers like to tell this anecdote: the strongest motivation for a person who wants to go to the toilet. Indeed, try to imagine someone who very much, painfully wants to relieve themselves, but instead thinks:

  • I have no time
  • I'm too tired for this
  • I don't know where to start
  • I have already peed 3 times, and this time I do not believe that I will make it to the toilet
  • I had a chance and now it's too late
  • I have a different mindset and do not have this necessary toilet vein

Have fun? Well, now imagine that, in fact, this whole situation with the toilet is no different from all the others. It's just a matter of motivation - for some things it is strong, for others it is weak.


The best plan to reach your goal

Based on everything we've talked about so far, there are a number of things you can do to keep your motivation high:

  • Decide on a goal. It should be as specific as possible, clear, focused, definitely YOURS (see above) and bring joy.
  • Plan ahead. Determine what resources you will need to achieve the goal - it can be not only money, but also time, effort, knowledge, help from other people. Think over the steps that you will have to take on the way to the goal, divide them into smaller and easier to do (something you can start with today). Try to figure out the risks and workarounds in advance. Without obstacles, both external and internal - from the head - no one has ever achieved their goals. I'll tell you a secret - your subconscious will resist most of all. In general, before embarking on real actions, you should have a “road map” in your hands that will make your path easier.
  • Move little by little, very carefully, but definitely every day! Be patient - the results will be, but not immediately, and if you try to make a sharp breakthrough (sharply limit calories, sharply increase the load), then after a while you will get the same sharp rollback - and it will discourage you from continuing. Persistence and consistency are more important here than exploits and heroism.
  • Keep yourself positive. Positive emotions are a great force that turns you into a superhero who always succeeds in everything. Reward yourself for achievements, allow yourself to relax from time to time, rest more often, sleep well.
  • Use incentives to enhance results.

How to force yourself to play sports: additional incentives

As we have already said, incentives are our artificial intervention in a situation in order to help ourselves and support ourselves.

Here is my small selection of incentives for health goals:

  1. Always keep your goals in front of your eyes. Write a goal, hang it on the monitor, on the refrigerator, put a screen saver on your desktop. This goal should tease you, tease you - in general, stimulate you in any way. Of course, you don’t need to write something like “Lose weight, fat creature” either (although this can help someone), but a simple statement of purpose like "I want to be skinny" won't work properly. Give a clear, specific goal and state why you need it (“I will lose 50 kg to look beautiful at prom”).
  2. Take before and after photos. For those who are losing weight/swinging, this is the strongest incentive to see how their efforts bring results. Of course, at the beginning of the journey you will not have an “after” photo, but you can take intermediate photos.
  3. Keep a diary and constantly monitor your body parameters. This is another way to get confirmation of the growth of your opportunities. Seeing you drop weight, lift more weight, walk or run longer distances at faster speeds is a great motivator to keep going.
  4. Surround yourself with everything that connects you to your goal. Start living in a world connected to your purpose. If you want to run marathons, then hang posters of famous athletes, watch competitions, read books, attend trainings, communicate with people who share your interests. Communication with people on the same wavelength is perhaps the most powerful incentive. Our environment influences us greatly, and it is this environment that can help keep us motivated.
  5. Burn the bridges. It's a very powerful, hard way to get yourself moving. Announce your goal to friends and family and they will definitely want to follow you and tease you if you fail, so you just have to do your best to spite them. Alternatively, declare your intention on social media. And even cooler - bet big money, and your motivation will go off scale. Burn all the bridges - so that there is simply nowhere to retreat in case of defeat.
  6. Invest in training. This is a development of the previous topic - spend decent money on sportswear, shoes, equipment. If this presses you financially, then you simply will not have a choice - to do it or not, because just a terrible amount of money has been spent, and you should not throw it away in any case. An additional bonus is that you will like yourself in sportswear and shoes, they will work to create the right environment (as per point 4).
  7. Start easy, pleasant and relaxed. For example, in the case of health walking for weight loss, at the very beginning, just take a walk with a girlfriend or friend to some interesting places. It is important to feel the movement and associate it with pleasant sensations. Give up the struggle - let everything you do be in joy.
  8. Practice affirmations. I didn’t believe in it for a long time, but now I admit it – it works, damn it! I wouldn't build my entire strategy on affirmations, as suggested in the movie The Secret, but use them as an additional incentive. Just say a few times a day, like a mantra, words that describe your end result - "I look like a supermodel" and so on.
  9. Connect to sources of inspiration. The most powerful of them, apart from the support of others, is music. Let it create the best mood for you! Other options are watching motivating (not necessarily for your purpose) movies and reading inspiring stories and books. Get yourself a Pinterest board and post inspirational photos there.

Remember: the best way to achieve your goal is action. Work on yourself, work hard, and all your efforts will be rewarded.

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