Even though we know we should, many of us have trouble getting motivated to lead a healthier lifestyle. We know that a sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy and that more time exercising is better than more time lounging around on the couch in front of the TV. We know that more fruit and veggies are better for us than that jelly doughnut. We know that quitting smoking or cutting back on our weekend drinking will help to extend our lives. We know these things, but there can be a huge gap between knowing and getting motivated to lead a healthier lifestyle.
One way to help getting motivated to lead a healthier lifestyle is to get a wellness coach. Wellness coaches are experts in bolstering motivation and helping people to set and reach goals. In a prior post we talked about how to find a wellness coach, as well as the many ways that they can help you achieve fitness goals:
A wellness coach provides several things: Guidance, support, subject expertise and knowledge of and experience in how to support people through change. Change involves much more than just establishing a meal plan, an exercise regime or a quit plan – it requires addressing the psychosocial and emotional issues that can be involved in change. Health improvements generally involve some degree of behavior and lifestyle change. It’s important for a wellness coach to be experienced in behavioral health issues as well as physical health issues. Often, mental and emotional issues may be factors contributing to unhealthy behaviors – or vice versa.
But if you aren’t ready to engage a coach or you’d like to go it alone, then this guide to getting & staying motivated to exercise from The Fix is pretty handy. They suggest that before anything, you need to identify your reasons why you want to change:
One critical factor is essential to your success: you have to know what you want and why you want it. It sounds simple, but many people don’t have clearly articulated goals, nor have they identified the personal reasons behind those goals. Those aren’t just the surface reasons, but the deeply rooted reasons you want something. If you don’t want it badly enough you won’t be willing to put in the work, especially when it’s inconvenient, hard, or boring.
Knowing what you want and why you want it is the foundation of successful exercise motivation. If you skip this step or don’t take it seriously, you can forget about implementing the rest of the motivation strategies below. They may work temporarily, but your long-term success is less certain. And yet most of the motivation tips and articles you’ll find online leave out this critical step.
The article offers 18 strategies to motivate yourself, as well as the helpful infographic below.
Source: Fix.com Blog