Did you make a New Year resolution this year to exercise regularly? Have you already lost track of your goal and are close to giving up on it?
If so, you’re not alone. There are so many people who set New Year resolutions who struggle to keep up with them. In fact, many of my clients come to me because of this issue.
They set a goal or a resolution to do something but somewhere down the line, they stumble and move off track.
It’s something that has happened to me several times as well. In the past, one of the goals/habits that I was trying to build was to exercise regularly.
However, there was something or the other that used to come up and prevent me from sticking to the habit.
But overtime, I successfully developed the habit of exercising regularly.
Now, hitting the gym and exercising is like brushing to me. It’s not something that I think or worry about. It’s no longer something that I resist or avoid. In fact, I look forward to it.
If I can do it, so can you.
Making exercise a regular habit isn’t a big deal. There are a few things you need to take care off to develop the initial habit. Once that’s done, the results will take care of themselves.
Here’s the 5 point system that I use for my clients to help make exercise a regular habit…
Renew and Rework Your Commitment:
One of the main reasons why people struggle to make exercise a regular habit is because they aren’t committed deeply enough.
If you were committed to exercising every day, you would ensure that all of your affairs are set in such a way that you have time for exercise every single day.
You need to mentally prepare yourself. Don’t just say, “I’ll exercise everyday starting XYZ date”.
Think deeply. Observe how your typical day goes and the exact time that you can really find for exercise.
Then commit yourself to exercising at those times without fail. Guard it religiously.
Daily exercise is crucial and important. If you cannot find time for 60 minutes of exercise every day, then you might as well sit down right now and rework on your priorities.
There’s just no point sacrificing your exercise and making money… because you will NOT have your health to enjoy it.
Work On Only One Goal At A Time:
Another reason why many people give up on their exercise routine is because they have too many conflicting goals they are going after at the same time.
They want to lose weight, build muscle, etc. at the same time. And they all want it at the exact same time.
It’s NOT going to happen. You need to learn to be patient and work on only one goal at a time.
The other thing to keep in mind is to ensure that your goal isn’t result oriented. Most people come to me and tell me that their goal is to lose X pounds.
That’s a good objective to have. Write it down.
Now let’s break it down a bit further and look at your training program. In order to be able to lose those pounds, you may need to:
- Lift Y amount of weight in free weights for 4 exercises every day
- Run Z kms on the treadmill in 15 minutes or less every day
Now these things have to be your goals. Pick one of them and stick to them devotedly and continually develop and improve your strength.
Be Religious About The Next 21 Days:
For any new habit to be completely installed in your system as a habit, you need to practice it for a minimum of 21 days. I don’t want to get into the details about that since I keep talking about this.
But if you can be disciplined and push yourself for the next 21 days, you will definitely be able to make it a habit.
Let me give you a real example of how I’d help a client solve this:
Client X wants to lose weight and build muscle. The optimal training program he needs is a little bit of cardio and some high intensity strength training.
It’d be ideal for him to start his exercise with 10 minutes on the treadmill, perform some warm-ups and then move to the strength-training exercises.
So for the next 21 days, I’d strictly Coach him to get to the gym, perform his cardio, do a warm-up and perform only one strength-training exercise.
What I’m looking at is to make the cardio exercise (the beginning of his workout) a permanent habit. Once he’s done with the cardio, it’ll be extremely easy for him to begin on the strength training program.
And with strength training, he can eventually pick up and move from one exercise to two, three or four exercises eventually.
For those 21 days, I’d strictly hold him accountable. I’d advise him to guard his exercise time preciously and not let anything overtake it.
Create A Time-Slot:
Just like how you usually schedule a meeting or appointment with your co-workers or executives, it’s important to create a strict 1 or 2 hour window for your exercise program.
The 1 – 2 hour window will consist of your travel time to the gym/park, exercise time (of 30 – 60 minutes) and your shower time.
Guard this time slot strictly for the next 1 week like your life depends on it.
Celebrate Your Initial Success:
Reward yourself for the positive habits that you’re building. I always encourage my clients to treat themselves after they persist and achieve their initial 21 day habit goal.
Take a day off from work and go somewhere and just relax. Reward yourself for what you did by treating yourself at the spa or somewhere.
Then come back and then set Exercise #2 has the habit and stick to it for the next 21 days. Reward yourself again.
Keep doing it until you achieve all of your strength and endurance goals.
You’ll find that the results such as your weight, waist size, body fat percentage and so on will take care of themselves.
If you’re serious about transforming your health and creating the life that you want, go here right now…
Strategy
Working with a professional coach who can listen to your frustrations non-judgmentally and support you can help you get results faster.
Besides working with clients 1 on 1, I also engage with corporate teams through my Group Wellness Sessions.
Through these sessions, your team will learn how to make powerful changes to their current lifestyle so they tremendously improve performance. In my personal Intervention, I will teach them how to…
- Make small shifts in their lifestyle that will double and triple their productivity
- Create an action plan to increase their energy levels tremendously
- Improve their physical and emotional health drastically.
Are you an executive who’s looking to increase your team’s overall productivity? Then go here right now to get in touch with me…
About HPA
Yours Sincerely,
Satish Rao
PS: If you find this article helpful, I’d appreciate if you can spread the message with your friends and co-workers.