With Covid19, it has been hard for many people to stick to a regular movement routine in the first place. Many are starting back up from scratch.
Don’t let a break like this get you down – simply roll with it and let’s get back on track!
If you are like my current clients, who all made an extra effort to adopt holistic health solutions that are both sustainable and reliable, especially in these times – good for you, you are excelling at this.
But no matter where you are at, with gyms, team sports and group fitness either not possible or restricted, it is hard to keep up motivation for everybody everywhere.
How Motivation Fuels our Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Many of us are relying on extrinsic motivation to keep us going. Like – running regularly with your running group or club, signing up with a gym and going regularly because you pay for it, having a regular circle of friends work out together – which holds everybody accountable. That is a great way to ensure you get your Move in even on the days where you would rather not – plus it has social benefits as well.
Intrinsic motivation is a key piece in building truly sustainable habits. And, in Covid times – we have to rely more on intrinsic motivation (meaning without obvious and direct external rewards) – like truly wanting to move because you like how you feel and are okay sticking to routines you set for yourself.
A clear Inner Purpose is KEY to Optimal Health and Wellness
A key way to really building this internal drive, this lasting source of energy to keep you going, is to become clear on your PURPOSE. Why do you want to build healthy habits? What are the INNER rewards you are going for? Every time you hit a low, you can refer back to those internal drivers and find new energy to keep it up. Give it a try, it is truly powerful!
If you feel like your intrinsic motivation is running out and you need some external drivers to motivate you – here are a few ideas to get you started on your holistic healthy living journey:
- sign up for a virtual race. Training for an actual race and setting goals for a specific time you want to break will challenge you and you will pick it up a bit! I am currently training for a 5k race on September 13th – with adidas Runners global (yes, as many of you know, I work with adidas and adidas Runners and am working on much of the content – so I can highly recommend! Check it out @adidasrunners). Otherwise – there are plenty of other virtual races out there. Share your favourites with all of us in the comments.
- Sign up for a challenge – similar to virtual races, there are plenty of virtual challenges out there – in different apps and within gyms or other movement communities that usually meet in person and now try to make this virtual thing work. Any challenges you can recommend? I have a challenge going on with my pilates teacher currently!
- Create your own: together with one or more of your friends – create your own challenge where you each set a goal that you work towards and hold each other accountable to. As an example – I have a few girlfriends I take online classes with and have a social distance walking friend as well.
- Find fun activities to move together with your family and be clear about priorities. One of my clients set herself some ambitious MOVE goals – and realized that this plan really cuts into the time she wants to spend with her kids. She changed some of her move activities to be biking, soccer and other activities with the kids – and now she can do it all! She fits in focused workout in between and up-ed her overall activity level tons!
- Make a plan: I keep coming back to JOURNALING – and it is so powerful. Putting pen to paper and writing down what you want to accomplish (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound), and what your strategies are to get there works wonders! Making a daily plan for your MOVE (schedule it!), NOURISH and RENEW repertoire makes all the difference (I recently read that you are 42% more likely to accomplish something you wrote down – according to this study – and it rings pretty true). The act of writing it down is a big step towards making something stick. Try it out!
- A sneaky little way to help me stick to a move plan if I can tell I am struggling to get going: put on my workout clothes and simply step out the door/or into the space where I have my yoga mat. What else are you going to do now other than simply get it done? And starting to feel good about it in the process…? Simple action creates the momentum you need to put it all in motion and get back on track.
I would love to hear your experiences, ideas and suggestions in the comments @youroptimum.
Enjoy, move and be well,
Barbara
