4 Ways to Overcome Fitness Procrastination

You know how important fitness is to your health, yet something keeps you from working out. Jay Scott has the answer and what to do.

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The alarm clock goes off. It’s blaring beep feels like it’s drilling to the back of your skull. You do not want to get up–you want to close your eyes and drift back into the Rhapsody of dreamland. In fact, you’d just about rather do anything than wake up!

And truly, at that point the decision is yours. You can either turn the clock off and sleep in (missing work or that important doctors appointment). Or, you can heed its beeping, blaring command and start the day.

Some (myself included) might say that this is the hardest part of the day–hearing that grating alarm and making the decision to get up, to begin anew. But once you are awake and in motion things start moving forward, they start getting accomplished, and you are ready to cultivate another productive day.

The same principle applies to your workout routine. You know it’s time to work out. You know that you need to work out and you probably even know it doesn’t have to be that long and grueling to be effective.

On the blog quickanddirtytips.com, The Get-Fit Guy Ben Greenfield notes one particular study that shows as little as 15 minutes of moderate exercise a day can work wonders for your health. In fact, it can add years to your lifespan, yet still, you resist.

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It’s 5:30 pm and you just pulled in the driveway. What a day–work was a real drag. You are exhausted. You pull yourself out of the car, stagger into the house, plop down on the couch, and flip on the T.V.

After a few minutes of mind numbing television, a little alarm of your own goes off. But this alarm is different; this alarm is within your very being. Your eyes glaze over as you stare at the sitcom flashing before you, you know what time it is.

It’s time for your workout, but at this point the term “working out” feels about on par with “climbing Everest”. Yes, it feels that way, but experience tells you differently.

Experience has shown you that a nice intense workout would make you feel better. Right now a workout would relieve stress, clear your thoughts, and give you more energy. Isn’t it funny how the mind sometimes resists the very action that would help it most?

Oh yes, you know you should workout, but what harm could a few more minutes of rest do? After all, you just had a long workday; your boss needs those papers by tomorrow, and your co-worker Suzie took up your whole lunch break yammering about her kitten’s staff infection.

Your chest tightens a bit, and an all too familiar feeling starts to creep through your bones–its guilt; nasty, disappointing, defeating guilt. To deal with this subjugating and disheartening feeling, your mind battles back with its number one weapon–excuses. You start to think about the traffic on the way to the gym, how bad it would be right now, probably bumper to bumper.

Heck, even when you got there, the gym would likely be so busy you wouldn’t be able to get on a treadmill. There would be a line for all of the machines you need at this time of the evening. You watch a bit more of the sitcom–trying to get your mind off things.

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Now it’s 6:05 pm, and there’s that guilt again. Your brain rebels–it’s angry at the guilt, and that anger leads to a sort of mental tantrum. You rattle off a random thought, “Is it so hard to understand that I can’t work out–that I am not capable of handling this right now?”

But, deep inside you know you are capable. You know that you could work out, and that very fact is what’s inducing the guilt. So the vicious circle begins again–the mind makes up more excuses, more rationalizations for why you can’t work out.

That is the cycle of procrastination, and we all know the horrible feelings associated with it. We know these horrid emotions because at one point or another we have all given in to them.

It’s the same feeling we experience when we are rudely awakened by the alarm clock every morning. It’s something we know we need to do, but we just don’t want to do it! At least not right now. “Just let me sleep a few more minutes’ mom…”

Procrastination, or “resistance” as author Steven Pressfield calls it in his book The War of Art, is one of the hardest things to defeat on the face of the planet.  But it can be defeated.

Below are some fitness productivity tips that have helped me slay my dragon of procrastination and resistance–and I know they can help you to destroy yours as well.

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1. The first 10 minutes are the worst. Read that again, the first 10 minutes of exercise are the hardest to get done. In other words at the beginning of a workout there is a good chance you’ll feel like poo. According to Dr. Mike Stroud, in his book Survival of the Fittest, the poor feelings at the beginning of a workout are due to your body being in a slight oxygen deficit. Once the body balances your oxygen levels, you’ll feel much better.

2. Motivation doesn’t always come before action. I learned this one about four months ago. Seriously. If you’ve ever said to yourself “hopefully I’ll be motivated to do that tomorrow”, then you are guilty of waiting on the motivation to take action as well. Often, motivation comes after we begin the task, so don’t wait on motivation to begin your workout.

3. Make working out like taking a shower. I often ask my clients how they would feel if they skipped a week of taking a shower. They always say “terrible” or “gross.” I reply, “Well, you’ve got to make exercise such a habit that you feel the same way when you skip a workout.” Some might argue that taking a shower is much more of a necessity than working out–I might argue that both are necessities.

4. Thinking is your worst enemy. Think too long and procrastination wins. End of story. Your mind will come up with so many excuses why you shouldn’t work out that you’ll have a hard time deciding which one to use. No clean clothes, too tired, and the gym’s too busy. Don’t give your mind a chance to talk you out of what you need to do, take action and get it done without over thinking.

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You cannot win the war with procrastination–it is far too tough and resilient for that–but you can win most of your daily battles with it by following the four rules above.

This whole process may sound a bit uncomfortable, and the truth is that it can be. But overcoming procrastination comes with a reward; you will feel great after you complete your task.

When you finish that workout an overwhelming sense of joy and accomplishment will saturate you. Embrace that feeling–become addicted to that feeling. Be proud and recognize that this day you have battled a great enemy and came out victorious! You’ve beaten procrastination, and you’ve won the fight.

But as you drift off to sleep later that night with a smile of victory playing across your lips, remember that the alarm clock that wakes you in the morning isn’t the only enemy that will rear its ugly head…

Procrastination, that tireless foe, will be back as well, and it most certainly will be ready for battle. The question is will you be ready to face it?

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Photo: Flickr/ Presidio of Monterey