How many times have you wanted to workout but easily found too many excuses not to do it? Have you told yourself, “I will workout tomorrow”, “one day off won’t make a difference”, “the weather outside is awful and I don’t want to go to the gym”, “I worked out really hard yesterday so I deserve a day off” or my personal favorite, “I will workout twice as hard tomorrow.”
Even though I have been working out for over 30 years, I still have those days where I just do not feel like training. After thinking about this problem, I have found a really simple way to satisfy my desire to workout every day.
For example, I told myself a long time ago, if I practice Karate, specifically kata, each day, I will improve. The problem is that I found many excuses not to train every day. If I missed a day, I would try to do twice as much the next day but my form suffered and it made me want to train even less. I had to break this pattern so I gave myself a very simple goal. Instead of telling myself that I had to do five or 10 katas each day, I told myself that I only have to do one kata per day. Anyone has the time and energy to do at least one kata per day. I even told myself that I can do any kata I choose from the most basic kata to the most advanced that I know. The interesting thing that happened here is that once I did one kata, I ended up doing more. Since I was already there and warmed up, why not do another? And another? And sometimes another or more. The simplest kata that I do can be done in less than one minute, even doing it in slow motion and surely I could give my Karate one minute a day, right? The one minute often turns into 10, 20, 30 or even 60 minutes, not because I have to do it, but because I want to do it. Before I start my kata, I warm up and then do my stretching, which is another goal that I have to stretch at least once per day, and one kata leads to two and so on. Once the momentum starts, it is hard to stop and I don’t stop until I feel that I am no longer improving.
Here are some other ways to apply the same concept. Instead of putting off working out, you can do some simple things at home or even in the office, while watching TV or sitting in front of the computer. I am sure you can find one minute to do some crunches or push ups, right? Or maybe some body weight squats or if you are already in good shape, some burpees. You don’t have to go to the gym, you can do this in front of your couch, next to your desk or almost anywhere but the key is actually doing it. After a short time you find that doing those 10-20 crunches is easy or doing those 10 push ups didn’t take any time at all so now you start to do more. It becomes addictive and pretty soon you are looking forward to your workout and you want to do more. Soon you will find that one minute turns into five minutes, then five turns into 10 and so on. Instead of one exercise, you might add another one or two or three.
The key here is to be faithful to your original goal. If you set your goal and tell yourself that you are going to do 10 good push ups a day, make sure that you do 10 good push ups each day, no matter what. That is the deal that you have to make with yourself and you have to be totally dedicated to it or this won’t work. Don’t make goals or promises that you cannot keep so keep them simple.
So what are you waiting for? Set your goal, go do your workout and leave me a comment if this works for you.