Re-energizing Your Exercise Program

By John Wildman for Laird Hamilton

If you want to have a successful fitness program, the better starting point is to first focus on the way you think about exercise, and how to properly prepare mentally in order to make certain you achieve 100% of the results you are looking for.

Understand Your Driving Want
It is important to understand why it is important to you to achieve your personal fitness goals. Not just how you want your appearance to change or how much faster or stronger you want to be, but what are the real reasons you want to see yourself improve. Is it because of the way you will feel about yourself, is it to be a better role model to your children or family, do you want to live longer, or impress someone special, do you want to enjoy a higher quality of life? Maybe it is a combination of all these things. But if you are someone who right now feels the desire to make a positive change in your fitness program, somewhere deep down inside you there is a reason you want to be healthier, look better or perform your best and to do that you need to first understand why.

Motivate Yourself Daily and Visualize Success

The next step is to take the responsibility for motivating yourself to exercise properly each day. ?Being a good self-motivator starts with understanding what you want to achieve and why, and then reminding yourself every day. If you?re personal fitness goal is something as basic as being healthier and living longer, because recently your overall health has started to decline, then remind yourself of that each day. When you start to get back in shape and recover your good health, don?t let yourself forget the reason you got started in the first place. Conversely, if you are already in good shape, but now have the desire to get into the best shape of your life because you want to be able to again enjoy that youthful feeling of indestructibility, and the euphoria that comes along with being able to take on almost any physical challenge, then visualize yourself performing your absolute best every day and get yourself there.

Keep the Bad Thoughts Out (At Least Most The Time)
For some reason, our minds are wired in a way that from time to time we let negative thoughts of failure and defeat sneak in. Generally, this negative thinking is the result of lack of exercise and poor eating habits. When you don?t take care of your body, your mental state typically declines as well. However, most all of us have other influences such as work, family, and financial pressures which can influence our mood as well. Despite everything going on in our lives, it is up to each of us to try to maintain a positive outlook. The reality is negative thoughts generally lead to a bad outcome, while positive thinking can lead to fantastic achievements. If you want to successfully achieve your fitness goals, push away any thoughts of failure, and see yourself as the person you want to be.

Surround Yourself with Support (BootCamp)

There is something magical about the contagious enthusiasm of a group of like-minded people all striving to achieve similar goals. This is especially true when it comes to living healthy, or achieving a personal fitness goal. The more you surround yourself with others who want to advance their fitness program, the greater your chances of success. If you want to be healthy and enjoy a highly active lifestyle, seek out the companionship of others who have your same passion for life.

 

Remember, there are many, many different ways to get more physical activity, and most all movement is good. The key is to be able to successfully motivate yourself every day to follow through with the required work to achieve your personal fitness goals. So if you are in the process of re-energizing your workouts or just getting started for the first time, take a moment to get control of the way you think and then maintain that most important healthy habit for life.