7 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Motivation can get a little sparse at times, for everyone. So here are 7 strategies I use to help motivate myself. Hopefully they will help you guys stick to those workouts too!

1. Make a plan and even if you miss a day pick up from where you are on now, don't try to catch up. Just keep going!

2. Set aside a specific time frame and stick to it as if you have made a commitment with someone else i.e like you are meeting up with a friend and can't cancel. After all, exercise and eating well is a commitment to yourself and your health. If you don't like bailing on other people, give yourself the same respect.

3. Just start. Vvercome those anxieties and start small. You don't have to 'crush it', you don't have to go 'beast mode'. You just have to take one step in the right direction.

4. Get an accountability buddy and use the power of social pressure to help you (and your friend) achieve those aims. It also give you someone to celebrate with when you achieve the goal you set out! (which everyone knows is the best bit)

5. Make the task (or in this case exercise) the most enjoyable it can be, especially to start with. That way we won't feel as much dread at the thought of doing it.

6. Keep track of your progress, done two out of three workouts this week? Mark them off on your calendar. Smashed a personal best whilst running? Note it down or upload it to strava. It always helps to reflect and see how far you've come.

7. If you don't feel like doing it, or in fact you don't feel like doing anything. DO IT anyway. We don't have to feel like doing something to do, everyone does tasks they don't feel like doing *cue me emptying the bins*. Sometimes the best motivator is to just ACT as if we're motivated (even though we're not). Often this will help lift our mood and our motivation and even if we still feel down afterwards we're no further from how we felt to begin with EXCEPT we are now one step closer to that goal. It's a win win situation really.

Well that's about it, those are the tricks I use to get myself motivated and often what I encourage clients to implement into their routines too!