“I’m too tired.” “It’s too cold.” “I have no time to spare.” “The gym is too far.” “I don’t own any workout clothes.”
Sound familiar? They’re all common excuses as to why we won’t commit to starting a new workout routine. We all fall victim to our excuses from time to time, and while some excuses may be valid, they should never keep us from executing a goal we established back in January 2009. It’s a new year and the perfect time to step into a new mindset. We can overcome our excuses and finally make it through those gym doors, even if that means hacking our way there.
The first step is to set a goal. By setting goals, we’re able to intentionally move through our fitness journeys, which is especially important when mapping out our workouts, maximizing our gym time, creating a realistic timeline and ultimately seeing results. Goals should be SMART, meaning they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. When listing our goals we must be clear and practical and we must be able to track our progress on a timeline.
Once we’ve set our goals it’s time to decide on a plan of action! What fitness formats will we choose to be part of our routine? How many days of the week will we work out? How much time are we willing to spend in the gym? It’s important, to be honest with ourselves. We’re less likely to fall short and let ourselves down if we commit to a realistic number of days. If we decide on formats that we truly enjoy, we’ll give ourselves something to look forward to those three or four active days of the week. This will also help eliminate some of the confusion surrounding our new fitness routine because we already know what to expect from ourselves and our workout before we even start.