Most people will tell you that they want to have a healthier better-looking body. But what separates them from the people who do?
Why does anyone add exercise to an already strenuous life?
Lets face it; life is difficult enough trying to keep a roof over your head and food on the table. Most people will ask themselves why they would want to add insult to misery and go exercise when they could be enjoying themselves doing something relaxing like watching TV, going to a bar or out to eat?
For most people exercise is very low on their priority list, I mean who wants to go out of their way to endure sweat, pain, and tire themselves doing exercise?
Life is simply to short, enjoy it why you can right?
So why do some people make exercise a priority while others don’t?
What is the difference between people who do exercise, and the people who don’t?
What would you say if I told you that everyone at one time in his or her life used to exercise daily, and they looked forward to doing it?
Think back to when you were a kid, you went out to play every chance you could get?
Maybe it was bike ridding, swimming, or a simple game of tag. The difference between people who do exercise and the ones who don’t is simply there perception. When you were a child you perceived all theses actions as fun things to do, but as an adult you think of them as work or a chore.
When I was a child I had daily chores to do, I hated to do chores and looked for every excuse to get out of doing them. I perceived them as unpleasant and therefore lacked any motivation in doing them unless I was told that I could go out and play when my chores were done, they were done real fast then LOL.
Any physical work that you do is some form of exercise. Like raking the leaves in the yard works your back and arms, we had so many leaves my arm got sore raking so I switched to the other arm.
If I raked the leaves real fast to go out and play I just added cardio to the task, little did I realize that this was exercising the whole time LOL.
Did you ever see the movie karate kid? It’s all about perception, if you perceive something as work or a chore you will usually lack any motivation to do it.
When most people hear the word exercise they perceive that this means going to the gym, or some other type of mundane repetitive action, this simply doesn’t have to be the case. There are many ways to exercise that don’t revolve around the tradition pattern, and you should look for creative and diverse ways to make it interesting and fun.
Nobody is ever motivated to do anything that they perceive as unpleasant!
This is the difference between people who do make exercise a part of their life and people who don’t. If you have the proper perception about exercise then comes motivation the driving force that makes you get up off your ass and move even when you don’t feel like it.
Exercise has to become a priority strong enough to cause someone to arrange his or her life so exercise has a place in it.
When you are young you really don’t think much about exercising because you have your youth and hopefully good health. You spent a lot of time and energy doing things fun that you didn’t realize were exercise, but as you aged and become a responsible working adult with a full time job you start noticing that you cant do what you used to when you were young.
Your priorities have changed and your body is paying the price.
One of the biggest motivators to exercise has to be your self-image, when you look in the mirror and start to wonder where it all went wrong?
How did I get this way?
By the time you get into your 30’s good health usually becomes a motivation to eat a proper diet and exercise.
Being overweight, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or maybe you have seen some of your friends get sick or die at an early age due to poor health?
Most people don’t want to get old, and they surely don’t want to have poor health. But it’s the simple choices that you make each and every day that compound over each and every year that put you in that position.
Ironically as you get older the things that you looked forward to do in your teens like drinking, smoking, and staying out late, you are now trying to eliminate from your life for better health.
But without the proper perception of why you should and must exercise most people fall far short of their intended fitness goals.
Many people start an exercise program with all the best intentions but stop as fast as they started; they simply lacked the proper perception as to why they should keep exercising.
Either their goals were too easily obtained or they were victims of unrealistic expectations. Making a commitment to exercise should have noting to do with short-term goals like loosing weight or building muscle, they are both by products of exercising and eating a proper diet.
Even though these short term goals are valid desires they wont keep you motivated long enough to make exercise a lifetime commitment. Your perception is for short-term success instead of a lifetime of good health, this is why you see people who were in shape for a period in their life then next time you see them you wondered the hell happened to them.
Your self-image can have a dramatic effect on you overall health and well being. If you are not happy about what you see in the mirror it can affect your physical and emotional life.
People with a poor self-image usually exaggerate their own problems by binge eating, drinking, smoking, or worse start using drugs. Their emotional state of mind is at an all time low and they usually start making up all types of excuses as to why they are doing these things.
They simply become their own worse enemy!
Their perception has now created a negative state of mind with a laundry list of excuses as to why their life is the way it is.
Things like:
I work too much
I don’t have the time
I just can’t loose weight
I can’t put on muscle
I have other things to do
I just wasn’t meant to be in shape
I was born with bad genetics
Saying things like this have a long-term negative effect on your current and future health but most people fail to realize the damage they are doing.
All the talk in the world will never change your life unless you change your perception and priorities about how things affect your life. Everything you think and say has a direct effect on your life and only you can choose to change the outcome.
There is an old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink!
Only you have the power to control your current and future health and it all starts with how you perceive what you think, say, and do. Nobody else can do this for you!
The people who make exercise a lifetime goal know that they will live a longer healthier life; feel and look better, have more energy and less stress in their life’s to keep enjoying the time they have on this earth.
There are days when I just don’t feel like exercising but I know that if I do I will feel much better afterwards, and I always do and glad I did!
Most people spend more time maintaining the material things in their life that are simply replaceable and neglect their body, the most valuable asset they have.
Without good health and a healthy self-image you will most likely go through life miserable making excuses for everything that happens in your life.
We all have to age, but you don’t have to get old!
Do you make exercise a part of your life?
If so, how?
What motivates you to exercise?
Want to know more read The best foods to eat for fitness