I have been thinking about a motivational post I wrote a few weeks ago about giving up working out not being an option. I have been trying to recall all the the reasons people I know gave me for not being able to continue working out. There are many reasons but all of them lead back to how that particular person viewed exercise and why they were doing it.
Is Exercising a Chore for you?
Well the answer to this question is the difference between dedicated gym goers who have great bodies and people who are out of shape or have quit gym. I think mowing the lawn is a chore I don’t like doing it whereas gym and exercise are things I look forward to, I like how exercising makes me feel, I like how it make me look, heck I enjoy exercising with its pain and all things gym. When I am stressed I exercise, exercising doesn’t stress me out, the thought of exercises gives me happy thoughts so I associate gym and working out in general with positive thoughts.
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| I don’t even think of quitting because I want to look like this guy..Ryan Terry |
Now a person who views exercise as a chore is bound to quit, its human nature to try to find shortcuts to things we don’t like doing or finding ways to avoid it like making excuses like “I don’t have time” just so you won’t work out. A person who sees exercising as a chore will find reasons not to exercise no matter how ridiculous the reason is as long as they can somehow convince themselves its a good reason not to work out that day. I have had many friends who would work out and start to see results only to quit after they had a bit of homework to do, or they got sick and they would never get back to working out. The first chance they got to stop they would, all it took was missing one week of gym before it became their habit and they would quit.
The problem is that many of my friends never really had a good reason to work out anyways, none of them was out of shape they were normal guys looking to get fit or buff but they quit before they got there. Part of the reason I think some of them quit is because they did not set clear goals for themselves to reach weekly or monthly, they just said I want to get fit, but what is fit? They should have set clear goals like I want to be able to do 30 pull ups in one set or run a half marathon etc. They should have defined what fit is for them and decided on a program to get them to their goals. See the problem was they saw the work which is the actual exercising as a barrier between them and their “fit” selves. The second you view the exercising as “work” is the second you make things even more difficult for yourself, where there is fun and gym pump for those who enjoy exercising, there is a mount Everest to climb for those who view exercise as a chore.
