If working out doesn’t come naturally to you, I’ve got some good news (sort of): It doesn’t come naturally to anyone. Literally.
“Biologically, our brains are doing everything they can to not work out,” says Amy Morin, LCSW, psychotherapist and author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. “We didn't evolve going to the gym or running on a treadmill, so it's actually quite counterintuitive to be, like, ‘I'm going to get exercise for the sake of getting exercise.’”
Simply put, motivation is a universal struggle. “It's not a monumental thing that you're going through in isolation. It is absolutely normal,” says Teresa Behrend Fletcher, Ph.D., program director and professor of sport and human performance at Adler University. “I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done. At some point, you're going to struggle with motivation.”
Of course, we know we should work out. And the more consistently, the better—if not for aesthetics or health, then at least to live a little longer. So what’s the key to making it stick? The answer might be simpler than you think.
Keep your goals to yourself
How often have you heard that the best way to reach a goal is to make it public?
Tell a friend. Better yet,
put it on social! It sounds like decent advice—once the goal is out there, it’s on you to make it real or risk public failure. But this is probably the last advice you’d want to follow.
“I know everybody says to tell a friend, but there's actually research that suggests you might not want to tell anybody,” says Morin. In a study published in the journal
Psychological Science, researchers at New York University observed that when subjects made their goals public, they became less likely to achieve them.
The short explanation is that your brain interprets this announcement as progress. “If you take a picture of an idealized body and put it on your vision board, or you call your friend and say, ‘Hey, I'm gonna get fit this year,’ your brain reacts as if you've already met that goal”—or at least taken a big step towards it, says Morin. “It kind of celebrates it and takes your foot off the gas.”
Visualize the work, not the result
Similarly, we’re often told to imagine what success looks and feels like, and to use that feeling as motivation. Visualization, after all, is a tool right out of most Olympic athletes’ playbooks. The thing is, elite sprinters aren’t closing their eyes and imagining the feeling of confetti raining down; they’re visualizing every single movement they need to make to get there.
Researchers at UCLA actually studied this. Their findings, published in the journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that when students visualized themselves studying hard for an exam, they vastly outperformed those who spent the same amount of time imagining themselves receiving a high grade.
This concept, known as “process simulation,” is as relevant to fitness as it is to freshmen studies, says Morin. “You're much better off visualizing yourself working hard,” she says. “Imagine yourself running, sweating, and being out of breath—not crossing the finish line of a marathon, because then you're already cheering.”
Read on for three more key motivators.
