It comes once a year and it always seems to get put off until the last minute. You swear that you will never do it again, but alas, it is the last minute tax crunch. Unfortunately, working out is not like taxes. It is not something that you can get away with cramming in at the last minute and only focus on once a year. Sporadic workouts done with great intensity are a sure way to land you with an injury, not to mention mediocre health and fitness. So what is the solution? A better work out program? Plyometrics and periodic training? Better exercise equipment? Personal Trainer? All of those things can help, but the key is consistency. No matter how great your plan, club, training, etc, is; it is quickly undermined by inconsistency. One month of working out, followed by eleven months of sitting on your butt, spells disaster.The first key to being consistent is enjoying the process. Now enjoying doing your taxes is a stretch, but enjoying working out is possible. If you want the results working out can bring you, it is going to have to become a habit like brushing your teeth. You dont have to love doing it, but you better make sure you dont hate it. The first step to turn working out into a habit is realizing that working out needs to be habit. Its not just an inconvenience you push through to finally allow you to fit into those one size smaller jeans. To be healthy and to keep your body running smoothly, you are going to have to maintain some type of consistent workout plan and the good news is that you get to choose the plan. Knowing that working out is something you need to be doing the rest of your life, why not make it enjoyable? There is also a very powerful physiological effect that happens when you turn working out into a habit. By committing to the new healthier lifestyle, you start to remove internal sabotage. If you are fighting to get to the gym, doing a work out you hate, just to lose weight or get to a fitness level, there will always be a voice of doubt in your head. Everyday you will have to fight that voice and it will eventually win. By committing to working out consistently, the voice of doubt eventually disappears. No longer are you on a mad push to get to that perfect fitness goal. You are committed to working out and enjoying the process which eventually also brings you that fitness goal. All of a sudden, not working out will feel funny. You will crave the consistency of taking the steps that makes your body feel great. No longer will working out be a have to, it will become a get to. The act of following a consistent workout plan will become the habit and the target of that plan, will be the goal you are striving for. Whether you achieve your goal, have a set back, or decide on a different goal, your underlying motivation of consistently following a workout plan will never change. This allows consistently working out to become a habit, even though, the specifics of what you do, changes. You have to work out consistently to keep you body running at its best and you have to do taxes. You might not like taxes, but if you make working out a habit you enjoy, you will end up keeping it the rest of your life. |
