Doubt, anxiety, depression, these are the demons many of us must fight against every day. It’s true with life and it’s true with fitness. Some of us have learned how to silence the “haters” but it is a battle every day. Here are five strategies to help overcome these negative emotions and enlighten your pathway to success.
Write Down Everything
One of the many reasons people don’t find success with fitness is not documenting it down. You may see other gym goers with notebooks, constantly jotting down routines, weights used, repetitions, and personal records. You can and should do it yourself, it helps keep you engaged with your fitness regimen. It helps bring order to the chaos that is working out. You can expand on what you document. It doesn’t just have to be about the exercises and personal records but document your goals and fears. Write down how you felt before coming to the gym and how you felt after you were done. Write down your fears and aspirations. Seeing it – as opposed to knowing it – may help keep your emotions in check and stave off self-sabotaging behavior.
Do it for Yourself
Fitness is an investment into yourself. Have you ever had the feeling that you’re not ever going to get in shape? Have you been going to the gym for months or even years but still feel out of shape and weak? If you loathe to see yourself in the mirror, the answer might not be physical exercise but mental exercise. Everyone must start somewhere and that looks differently for each person. Don’t let other’s expectations of you paint you into a corner. No one will ever know what living your life is like. Don’t be afraid of embarrassing yourself, don’t worry about what other’s might think of you, and celebrate the uniqueness that is you. Fitness is about taking care of yourself, feeling good, and helping with maintaining a happy and livable life.
Focus on Short-Term Goals with an Eye Towards the Long-Term Goals
We all want to achieve success and we tend to view the accomplishment of long-term goals to be that success. When we don’t see ourselves quickly completing those goals, we begin to doubt ourselves. This is why short-term goals are so important. Even just coming to the gym is a huge victory and shouldn’t be neglected as an achievement. Once that becomes a habit, you might not view it as much of a success. That’s the time to create more short-term goals. Those goals can be as simple as eating a salad today or running on the treadmill five minutes longer than what you’re used to. These short-term goals are the steps to achieving your ultimate goals but know those too are still steps to achieving something even greater; the life you want to live.
Schedule Your Workouts as a Date With Yourself
This one might seem a bit obvious but if you are struggling with consistency in your workouts, this could be a huge tool for your success. Many of us have smart phones or electronic calendars. Use them for your workouts. Look through your week and find when you can and want to go to the gym or workout. Schedule them in and put alerts to remind you. We are human and we are all capable of forgetting. Know what your past failures have been and get ahead of them. When do you have the most energy? Are you a morning person or a night person? Don’t worry about when other people tell you to work out, workout when you want to workout. Make sure you can fit it in and dedicate at least an hour of your day to fitness. It’s a date with yourself.
Learn More
Education is the key to fighting ignorance. Without getting too deep into this subject, learn about fitness as much as you can. Watch YouTube videos, talk to other gym-goers, hire a trainer, read a book and then put that knowledge into practice. Learning what something is leads to knowing why something is. Even if you think you know what you’re doing, keep an open mind and you might discover a missing piece in the puzzle that is fitness. Even the most experienced fitness gurus learn something new every day. Document your learning experience like you would with school. It will help keep you organized and evolve your thoughts and ideas on fitness overtime.
How do you overcome doubt and anxiety? What are your goals? I’m not a mental health expert but these are a handful of the strategies I utilize every day. I hope they help you in your journey to achieve success. Let me know what strategies you use to silence the “haters” and thanks for reading. Stay awesome.