Love Yourself! 5 Top Tips on How To Achieve Your Exercise Goals

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how to achieve exercise goals - woman running on beach!Life is extremely busy these days – and we always seem to be packing more in. So, when it comes to exercise there are so many things that can derail us and take us off track – no matter how good our intentions are! So, hopefully you’ll like these powerful and practical exercise-centric tips on how to achieve goals!

Here are my All-Time Top 5 Fun and Action-Centered Tips on How to Achieve Your Exercise Goals:

  1. Do it EVERY day. Don’t say you’ll run/do yoga/do that exercise video once or twice a week – do it DAILY. For less time if necessary – 10, 15 or 30 minutes a day. This way it’ll become a healthy habit. And if you DO miss a day, you’ll be right back at it – the NEXT day!
    Example: I used to run twice a week and it was a chore. I would be tired and miss a run. Then I’d not feel like the next one, and then it was only one day until the second run that week, so I may as well wait right? You know what happens next – I stopped altogether. So, now I do short runs EVERY day. When I get up I know I am going to run. No decision making – how easy is that? And it’s actually a multiple win as I have to walk the dog anyway and it saves me time too… See the next tip!
  2. Find the MULTIPLE WINS. This is my favourite goal and action-setting tip. Ever. Find the action or solution that has MULTIPLE benefits. Essentially this means you pick an exercise activity or time that has MANY benefits and reasons so you WANT to do it!
    Example: I had a client who decided to cycle to work. Turns out it took the same amount of time as driving AND he got the following Wins: 1) Saving money – gas and parking/bus fare AND gym membership! 2) Getting fitter, 3) Better for the environment (this was important to him), 4) Cycling through Stanley Park every morning left him feeling calm and connected to nature, 5) Losing the excess pounds, 6) Feeling strong and confident and an unexpected 7) New friends who also cycled to work!
  3. STOP MAKING EXCUSES. We’re all full of them: I don’t feel like it, I’m tired, don’t have time for a shower, need to get into work early, have a meeting, need to pick up a birthday card etc. STOP making excuses. If you really are sick or super-tired, simply don’t exercise! Having a REASON not to exercise is OK, but don’t make excuses. Then, unless there’s a REALLY good reason you simply DECIDE to exercise. Stop making excuses and nothing will stop you!
  4. Make it FUN. Love nature or gorgeous views – go hiking or running! Love the water – learn to Kayak! Love sparkly clothes – tried bellydancing? Have a crush on a fitness guru or instructor? Buy their exercise DVD! Like heels, looking fancy or want something fun to do with a partner – tried ballroom or latin dancing? Exercise can be fun – when we let it. What are you passionate about? What have you always wanted to learn? Make it fun and exercise gets so much easier!
  5. Do it WITH SOMEONE. No, not that! (well maybe!) I mean find an exercise buddy or a FEW exercise buddies! Also known as ‘accountability’ partners. It doesn’t have to be people you know well – but if you know someone is waiting for you, you’re more likely to show up! And the more you BOND with your fellow exercisers the more you will want to be there and you may just make some new or deeper friendships into the bargain! That’s a multiple win right there.

3 Bonus Exercise-Focused Tips on How to Achieve Goals!

  1. A variation on “Do it EVERY day”: Instead of choosing days to exercise, pick one or two days a week when you WON’T exercise – and luxuriate in that!
  2. A second variation on “Do it EVERY day”: Just decide to do SOMETHING (minimum 10 minutes) every day – but it could be something different each day. This means if you don’t feel like that class or a run, you could do press-ups or boogie in your living room for 1o minutes. A great way to get in daily exercise, make it easy and keep it fun. And keep developing that exercise HABIT…
  3. Create an exercise ritual for before or after exercising. This could be a reward of a nice cup of tea and a sit down, you could write in your journal or have a nice bath or shower with your favourite body products. Or for a post group-exercise ritual use it to support and encourage each other. It could be a verbal check-in from everyone while you get warmed up, a coffee and a hang-out afterwards or a monthly social. You decide – but make the ritual fun and a ‘WANT TO’!

“I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing.” Marsha Doble

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2 Responses to Love Yourself! 5 Top Tips on How To Achieve Your Exercise Goals

  1. Hi Emma,

    Your blog is definitely bite sized and digestible.

    It was accidentally that I stumbled upon your blog through psychology of eating from the best 50 self help blogs.

    May I give a humble thought to make your writing more appealing.

    1. Line spacing is an important thing that I have learned from great bloggers like problogger and copyblogger.
    2. The captcha in your comments section is a distraction for busy people, who is your target audience I believe. I tried it three times to be honest..

    It is wonderful connecting with you and please give me your feedback about my work.

    Have a lovely day ahead.

    Sincerely,
    Life coach Rafi

    • Emma-Louise says:

      Thanks for your thoughts Rafi – I appreciate the time you took to write your comment – and the 3 attempts!

      So,

      1) May I humbly ask you to clarify what you mean by line-spacing? More space? Where? How much?
      and
      2) the captcha does make things more difficult for sure. Without a captcha I get 30-40 spam comments a day. And it is hard to find a captcha that works well – this is my 3rd captcha widget already! Those pesky spammers! Was it hard to read what the captcha said? I find this on other sites myself sometimes.

      Thanks, warmly, EL

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