February. The month of shattered dreams and ambitions. Sneakers are gathering dust and candy bars have replaced protein bars. The spirit with which we attacked our New Year’s resolutions is now only a vague memory.
If your motivation to stick to your resolution to exercise more this year is waning, you’re not alone. It is suggested around 80% of people will have given up on their New Year’s resolutions by February.
But the reason why your motivation is decreasing might be because you picked the wrong motives and goals to begin with. And research shows us that choosing the right kind of goal is key to staying motivated over the long term.
Reduce effort
Many of us believe that we need to wince, contort, sweat and pant in order to lead healthier lives. So, at the beginning of January, we put a lot of effort into helping us achieve our goals.
Unfortunately, our brain encourages us to avoid physical exertion. This is why the excessive effort we put in when we exercise will work against us in the long run, causing us to feel less motivated to exercise by the end of January. Our brain constantly monitors our body for any changes in our resting state, which could mean danger to our health. The more physical exertion we put in, the more a signal is activated and our brain tells us that the activity is simply not worth the effort and the potential risk.
This is why minimizing the effort we have to put into exercise can actually better help us stick to our long-term resolutions. For example, if you dread even a fifteen minute jog, do five minutes instead. Or if you hate running but love Zumba, do it instead. The rule of thumb is that the activity you are trying to motivate yourself to do you have to please. And research shows we’re much more likely to do something if it requires less effort – especially when we start new exercise regimes.
The same principle applies to reducing the psychological effort required to exercise, because our brain encourage us to avoid it – so much so that, when given the choice, we often prefer physical pain instead. He does this because he wants to save psychological effort for the emergency moments.
When it comes to starting a new exercise program in the new year, things like fitting workouts into our schedule or getting out of bed an hour earlier all require psychological effort. To reduce psychological strain, it can help minimize unnecessary decision-making. When it’s time to exercise, remove decisions like walking or driving to exercise, or put your sneakers in one place so you don’t have to search for them.
Although these seem like small decisions to make, they can all cause us to feel less motivated to exercise when we are required to make them. Research even shows that when we think our goals requires little effort to achieve, we are more likely to achieve them.
Choose short-term goals
Another fundamental motivational mistake that many of us made in January was setting our goals too far in the future. Many people start exercising to shed a few pounds, perhaps to fit back into their favorite jeans. But when the outcome is far in the future, our brains don’t associate motivation (fitting into our jeans) with exercise – so we’re less likely to exercise.
By choosing a goal that has a more immediate result, our brain associate the result positively with exercise because they occur simultaneously. For example, the benefits of exercise on mood occur more rapidly than changes in physical health, so this may be a best motivator so you can keep exercising long after January. In short, make exercise an immediate reason you can achieve – and the long-term benefits will follow.
Focus on “being” instead of “having”
The final motivation solution is to change the type of goal you have. The so-called “have” objectives are used little purpose for our motivational brain, which focuses on more important things – like being effective at what we do and creating social connections. An example of a “have” goal would be to exercise for a better body. This type of goal is considered less important by our brain because it does not help us achieve the essential goals that help us thrive.
On the other hand, the types of goals that are more likely to keep us motivated are “being” goals. An example of a goal would be to exercise for good health or to be more athletic. Goals are superior because humans tend to want to bond with other like-minded people based on who they are. This motivation is believed to have developed in our ancestral past, as bonding helped us survive. So someone may find it easier to exercise if they do it as a way to demonstrate their athleticism, for example. As a result, people do a better job of stick to goalscompared to other types of goals.
Even if you fell slightly at the end of January, that doesn’t mean you should give up on your goals altogether. But making a few tweaks to them — and your approach to exercise — can help you better stick to your goals for the rest of the year.
