How to get self motivation to work out?

Motivation's never been much of an issue for me, and it's not something I think about. For me it comes down to values and habit.

Let me throw this question out there to anyone reading: How do you stay motivated to brush your teeth? How do you get yourself motivated to get dressed, go out and live your life? If you aren't suffering depression, then these are questions that you don't bother asking yourself or worrying about. You just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to brush your teeth, you just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to go to work, you just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to go out and have some fun, you just do it. Why? Because all of these activities give you something that you want, and are consistent habits.

So why do people think they need to treat exercise any differently? Beats me. I don't have any more motivation to train than I do to brush my teeth. And with that total lack of motivation, I happily go to the gym three days a week, walk the dogs and generally do stuff. Why? Because it's a good, enjoyable, beneficial habit. Besides, if I weren't out training, I'd be sitting here on my computer answering questions about motivation, and that's not a very appealing alternative.
 
@Goldfish - I like what you said here. I think maybe one reason that exercise is a little different for some people is that for many people it usually involves a little more effort than, for example, brushing your teeth. Like what CrazyOldMan said - today when it was time to go running, the rain was starting to freeze into snow, it was dark outside, it is the second coldest day it has been all winter, and I just moved from living in the tropics for the last 4 years to a cold, icky-winter place. Going out in THAT was not at ALL what sounded fun to me, but being happy with the results, and knowing that I would feel better even three minutes into the run - that part did sound "fun" to me. But getting dressed and going out to dinner, or brushing teeth, or whatever - for most people, I suppose those things don't involve as much sacrifice as running in the dark and cold and freezing rain.

@Crazy - I very much like what you said: "After a while the fact you know you will be glad becomes your motivation to start and once you start you love it." This is exactly how I feel.
 
Goldfish
Ok this will show how sad I truly am.
My motivation for cleaning my teeth come in large part to my training. I have to eat a lot to fuel my training, and my teeth are essential to eating.
Motivation to get up and dressed in the morning. I have to work for a living and don't think they would approve of me turning up naked, un-showered and asleep, personally I would love to be paid for sleeping.
Basically I train for me so motivation comes easy there. The rest is often for other people or law so I find that harder.
I have recently gone from years of training in gyms to at home and that can kill motivation for many. For me it's better because I can get out of bed put on my ugly old gym wear, train without caring if the fact I am un-showered and a total mess offends anyone and just focus on the routine.
 
Sara
Personally I am happier running in the cold than the heat. If I start to chill I can go a bit faster for a while and warm up, the heat in contrast saps energy like nothing else for me.

I commute either on foot or on bike and do remember being used as a bit of a joke years ago in a work meeting some years ago.
The person running the meeting announced a list of names who should be ashamed of themselves for 3 reasons. Following a day when the roads had frozen and conditions were apparently dangerous for travel.
They all lived closer to work than me, and on easier roads.
They all drove to work and I cycle.
I am a southerner, which in the UK is supposed to mean soft, if not as soft as an American.
My response was to remind them I am not one of these soft northerners and smile. Never did figure out how I had any popularity there at all, certainly gave them enough flack to have lost it all.

The other thing that can be very funny with ice on the ground is that like most year rounders I am prepared for this and have snow spikes which can be fastened to my shoes and work exceptionally well. It is funny to see people's faces as they are struggling to walk on the ice and I am running on it without any sign of slipping. Their confusion is usually made worse when I am in long sleeved light top, light gloves and shorts, without being cold.
In case you hadn't figured this out yet I am a bit weird and my sense of humour can be more so.
 
Goldfish said:
Motivation's never been much of an issue for me, and it's not something I think about. For me it comes down to values and habit.

Let me throw this question out there to anyone reading: How do you stay motivated to brush your teeth? How do you get yourself motivated to get dressed, go out and live your life? If you aren't suffering depression, then these are questions that you don't bother asking yourself or worrying about. You just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to brush your teeth, you just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to go to work, you just do it. You don't need to find some mystical motivation to go out and have some fun, you just do it. Why? Because all of these activities give you something that you want, and are consistent habits.

So why do people think they need to treat exercise any differently? Beats me. I don't have any more motivation to train than I do to brush my teeth. And with that total lack of motivation, I happily go to the gym three days a week, walk the dogs and generally do stuff. Why? Because it's a good, enjoyable, beneficial habit. Besides, if I weren't out training, I'd be sitting here on my computer answering questions about motivation, and that's not a very appealing alternative.
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Nice Post man.

Altough I don't agree. If it was so common, then everyone in the world would be Fit. I have an Eliterian view of people, regarding many fields of Life, meaning, I think being a Loyal, Honest person, is something you're born with, just for example, I mean there are certain values that can't be taught or instituzionalized into you. And I think the same rules and 'gifts' abide with working out, and with that sense of positive 'Duty'.

Same goes for Sport, Fitness and Working Out. I can't estimate precisely, but I think most people that go to gym, are complete losers, meaning, their attitude is so wrong. They strictly go due to how this world is, the 'esthetic codes' and standards, and maybe because someone told them they 'should', or for their health, or to lose their disgusting belly and pig legs. It's much harder to find people like you for example, that do Exercise for Passion, not simply for utility or looks or any kind of that bullcrap. And my proof for hating gyms in general, but not the actual machines or trainers, altough them too a little, is the people and the mentality of 'going to gym', when you can get as fit as ever even with no ****ing piece of equipment at all. Go see how a random western fit dude compares to a common tribal person living in the forest for instance, that tribe member would be fitter than any of us probably, and the only training he had was Nature.

All these useless people will never be athletes or even fit, they may go to gym but they never care about truly testing themselves, don't wanna get too tired or work too hard no, they only go to be able to say 'I go to gym' to people and think they're so cool and fit. Ugh it pisses me off.

I think people that take it seriously are people that go to gym alone, not going there like you're at a ****ing club to socialize. People that rather skip a dinner than skip a workout, and dedicate to it and try and reach their own limits, but it's a Pleasure, a real revelation of what you are and what you can do.

Oh well, I guess I sound like a mad man, I am after all.

Anyway, back to your post, okay, I brush my teeth so they don't look groce maybe, but I really can't compare it to working out. Brushing my teeth isn't work, working out is. And remember I don't mean it negatively, but still it is not easy, you have to put the work in to see results.

CrazyOldMan said:
Goldfish
Ok this will show how sad I truly am.
My motivation for cleaning my teeth come in large part to my training. I have to eat a lot to fuel my training, and my teeth are essential to eating.
Motivation to get up and dressed in the morning. I have to work for a living and don't think they would approve of me turning up naked, un-showered and asleep, personally I would love to be paid for sleeping.
Basically I train for me so motivation comes easy there. The rest is often for other people or law so I find that harder.
I have recently gone from years of training in gyms to at home and that can kill motivation for many. For me it's better because I can get out of bed put on my ugly old gym wear, train without caring if the fact I am un-showered and a total mess offends anyone and just focus on the routine.
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Man once again, I really like reading your posts =)
 
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Famas
Much as I hate to be disagreeing with you, and am very elitist myself, our viewpoints are very different.
I was brought up to be two,-faced, dishonest and a bit of a thug. At school leaving time, I was all of the above and someone I would hate to meet now.
I moved into dangerous sports purely by chance and the people I met doing so helped me become less of an ahole in a number of ways, and more in others, I moved from an unconfident loser to an arrogant winner and loser.
What I have become now, and I am still a work in progress, was not a product of nature, but nurture. My genetic limits are there and I fight them daily so my nature is something I despise frequently. The nurture hasn't been positive in many ways and some of the lessons which have helped me the most could easily have sent me over the edge with hindrance.
I have often looked at myself and assessed what I like and loath. Unlike many who simply decide to accept this as unchangeable or mope about it, i have always viewed this as setting challenges I needed to rise to. At one point the list on loath totalled me in general, now the list is quite short but still not gone.
One thing that is certain. No matter how wonderful we think we are, someone still thinks we are aholes.
 
@FAMAS - not to get too off-track, but the thing you said about tribesmen being fitter than the gym-going westerner reminded me of something that I think about quite often:

Exercise (in the "going to gym" sense that you mentioned) seems to be primarily a first-world thing - a "necessity" for the rich. People don't need to exercise in many countries, and evolutionarily speaking, intentional exercise doesn't really even make sense. Our bodies have learned to store calories very efficiently, and people nowadays just eat a s***load more than they need to - especially in my home country of America. But tribesmen don't eat too much, poor people often don't eat too much, and animals don't overeat - these are all people/species who don't exercise because to intentionally burn extra calories would be suicidal. Just something interesting that I think about from time to time when I run - I think this idea first hit home for me when I lived in Bahrain and the Bangladeshi or Indian construction workers who were working in 40 degrees Celsius heat and humidity would just look at me like "wtf?" when I was out running.
 
sarakopp said:
@FAMAS - not to get too off-track, but the thing you said about tribesmen being fitter than the gym-going westerner reminded me of something that I think about quite often:

Exercise (in the "going to gym" sense that you mentioned) seems to be primarily a first-world thing - a "necessity" for the rich. People don't need to exercise in many countries, and evolutionarily speaking, intentional exercise doesn't really even make sense. Our bodies have learned to store calories very efficiently, and people nowadays just eat a s***load more than they need to - especially in my home country of America. But tribesmen don't eat too much, poor people often don't eat too much, and animals don't overeat - these are all people/species who don't exercise because to intentionally burn extra calories would be suicidal. Just something interesting that I think about from time to time when I run - I think this idea first hit home for me when I lived in Bahrain and the Bangladeshi or Indian construction workers who were working in 40 degrees Celsius heat and humidity would just look at me like "wtf?" when I was out running.
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All True.

My point is, that those people survive with much less and are used to needing less, while I would starve dead after 2 or 3 days. And in any case, skills and activity everyday to survive hunting, means they're better off runners and climbers than any spoilt western-er.

Oh and yeah I had that awkward feeling too, of running past a construction site and seeing those guys working hard in the Italian sun, I know what you mean. But after all, it's not a good comparison I think. They're working and they rather get drunk on beer later, it's not like they are happy or intentionally losing calories or breaking their back when working, see what I mean?
 
Famas and Sara

Stats show that in the UK at least most of the worst, high calorific diets belong to the poorer groups. This is because ready meals highest in fats and sugars are the cheapest and many of them would rather spend the difference on cigarettes and alcohol. The US may be very different, but here it's very evident.
Always having been a bit of a freak, back when my work was largely manual labour I still trained, even when this meant I was doing so much for a few weeks I couldn't eat enough to maintain my weight, I'm not always as smart as I like to think.

Functional and necessary fitness are very different to the style desired by many in the western world. Most have an aesthetic ideal they strive for and train for that alone, or an event they want to be good at.
I have been no better many times, and in some ways am now worse. I train at various things with no expectation to use the ability in competition or likely anywhere outside my gym. I have had a few ask me for tips on how to look like me, which I find odd, my advise is don't train like me. I do so much conflicting training my body can only maintain size and rough form, there is no time for growth or sculpting before I batter it again.

Personally I get funny looks just funning or cycling in the UK, let alone anywhere else.

One final thing for Sara. I will have to call your nationality into question here, the expression is 'mad dogs and English men got out in the midday sun' that call you gender into question too, thinking about it.
 
Also another thing that kills motivation is the fact that no matter how much you push you seem to be at the same weight however a large part of this is due to new muscle also portion sizes are an essential part of losing weight if you look at the difference in cutlery and portion sizes they have changed over the years.
 
SamSam said:
Motivation comes from the latin moveo which means 'to move'.
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Hate to be the teacher but, Moveo means "I Move", 1st person present tense :) Anyway, good point, it's more like, something that Moves you, a reason for someone to Act.
 
When I have trouble working out, I have to take a second to stop and think about the investment I'm making in myself. It's hard to justify working it in when you have so much to do, but you really have to reframe the situation. If you take the time to go to the gym, you're taking the "me" time you need, and you're giving yourself the energy you need to get through the rest of the day, while also taking steps to make sure your body is healthy enough to live a long life.

Positive affirmations are a great to help with this, too. :) If you're interested, I can help you find some great ones to motivate you!
 
There are thousnads of ways to get motivated. The way I motivate myself I do not think that you would be motivated same ways. Anyway I would like to share some of my ways to get myself motivated with you. Read those carefully and see if you find anything to get yourself motivated or not:

• First-time exercisers often set unrealistic goals that are too ambitious for beginners. They usually want to go for maximal goals, but they tend to get overwhelmed.So don’t start off trying to work out an hour every day. Instead, set more reasonable, achievable goals, like exercising 20 to 30 minutes two or three times a week. Initially it would motivate you mostly.

• Remember to chart your progress, whether it's with a high-tech online tracker or an old-school fitness journal. Seeing incremental improvements, whether it's improved time, increased reps, or greater frequency of workouts, can boost your exercise motivation.

• Another pitfall is all-or-nothing thinking, a perfectionist way of looking at life that leads to giving up when you miss a day or two or your workout doesn’t go well. if you accept that there will be some sidesteps on your fitness journey, you’ll be better prepared mentally to deal with setbacks. So don’t frustrated at any time.

• Expect that you'll get sick from time to time, and be psychologically prepared to miss a few days of exercise when that happens. Don’t let it be an excuse for giving up. "From then on, many people say, ‘I can’t exercise,'" But there’s always a way to exercise.

• To keep injuries from sidelining you, do your best to prevent them by warming up, cooling down, stretching properly, and not doing too much too soon.

So be realistic and most importantly be committed.
 
Thinking about self motivation, I guess one way is that you can give your self a reward if you achieve a certain goal. Having motivation is really important on anything we want to do, without it, we can still perform the activity but doesn't give a good result as if we are really motivated.
 
Figure out what you want to achieve, track your progress and the little bit of progress you make will keep you motivated and it compounds until one day its just a way of life
 
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