Learn How to Never Skip A Workout Again

Zero to Hero: Cracking the Code on the Workout Conundrum

In today’s fast-paced world, keeping up a consistent workout routine while grinding away full-time can feel like a myth. It’s the ultimate chicken and the egg scenario: “I’m too tired to work out,” so you hit up Google for energy-boosting tips, and bam—the advice comes back with “light exercise” and “eat healthy.” But hold up, you need motivation to do even ‘light exercise" and after work, who’s got the energy to tackle a gourmet health meal? So—how in the world do you summon the energy and motivation to workout, whether it’s "light" or otherwise.

Many of us set ambitious fitness goals, only to find ourselves skipping workouts more often than we'd like.

What if there were a way to rewire your brain and transform your mindset towards exercise? Enter Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). You've probably heard about NLP and its benefits, like helping people quit smoking or overcome their fear of spiders (never), but how can it help with fitness and get us off the couch and into the gym? Well, as a powerful tool that’s engineered correctly, it can help you break through mental barriers and establish a consistent workout habit.

Understanding the Mental Barriers to Exercise

Skipping workouts often stems from underlying mental barriers. These can include negative self-talk associating exercise with discomfort or inconvenience. What do we mean by this?

Ever caught yourself thinking, "I HAVE to work out today" or maybe "I NEED to do three workouts this week"?

When something feels obligatory, our enthusiasm levels aren't exactly sky-high. And even when you finally drag yourself to the gym, are you just ticking off exercises to rush home and crash? Let me ask you something if you were on a date with your celebrity crush, would you want it over and done with as fast as possible? Absolutely not! You'd want every moment to stretch, to last as long as possible.

So when you bang out yet another workout your brain sees it as just another task to get through. And does your brain get excited about completing yet another task you HAVE to do? You might get a fleeting sense of achievement, but your brain doesn’t light up over checking off a workout from your to-do list compared to a date night with [insert celebrity crush here].

And then we wonder why we have no motivation to stick with our routines! We’ve turned it into yet another chore with no emotion attached.

Mind Over Muscle: Mastering the Mental Game of Fitness

NLP offers techniques to address these barriers by changing how we think and feel about exercising. Follow these steps and start taking control of your motivation to exercise:

1. Negative Self-Talk

The first step involves having an awareness of what you say to yourself about exercise.

Start listening to the narrative in your head. Write down the negative things you say to yourself about exercising. Seeing them on paper can be a real eye-opener, and from there, you can begin to challenge and change these thoughts. It's about turning an unconscious habit into a conscious, and then constructive, dialogue.

2. Reframing Exercise as a Positive Experience

Next, let's shift gears and reframe those images in your head to work in your favour. Here’s where the magic kicks in.

It's all about where you point your mental spotlight.

You can switch on your motivation like flipping a light switch by tweaking the scenes playing in your mind about exercising.

Sounds a bit out there? Stay with us. Typically, when you think about hitting the gym, maybe you picture the hassle of the drive, the crowded peak hours, struggling to get your favourite machine, or the monotony of yet another upper body workout. These images? They’re on mental autoplay, and let’s be real—they’re not exactly sending you sprinting off the couch and into the gym.

So, what’s the trick to changing the channel?

Dive into a different emotional pool by switching up what you focus on. Instead of zoning in on the nitty-gritty, soul-sucking details of exercising—why not zoom out?

Recall a moment in the gym or during a run or any moment when you felt like an absolute boss! Remember that day the playlist was just right, your body responded perfectly to every challenge, and you pushed beyond your limits, feeling strong, unstoppable and ripped. Bring that memory to mind. Picture it vividly—the rhythm of the music, your muscles in perfect sync, that sense of raw power.

Now, harness that feeling. Immerse yourself in it. It might seem odd, and you might be sitting there thinking, "Okay, I've thought about it, and it's not doing anything!" Well, you're not tapping into it deeply enough! You've got to really feel it.

If it's not igniting something inside you, choose a different memory. Feel that surge of strength pulsing through you, see the sweat glistening on your skin. You’re not just recalling a nice feeling; you’re reliving a peak experience, right here and now.

If you struggle with conjuring up the emotions, there are techniques you can use to help with this, but this really is the key to flipping that motivational switch!

3. Anchor It Down

And finally, anchor it! This technique involves creating a physical link to the positive emotions you have just conjured up. This can be any movement such as a a fist pump or squeezing your finger and thumb together, but we’ve found that hitting your shoulder with a short quick tap has the greatest impact.

This action becomes a psychological trigger, eventually sparking motivation automatically whenever performed.

So, you conjure up your emotion, feel it, reach a peak state—then, BAM—perform your movement. Repeat this over and over! Keep amplifying your emotion—10x the feeling then perform your movement, then 100x, 1000x! As with anything, the more you practice, the better you get at it, and soon, performing your move will automatically conjure up the emotions for you.

Imagine this, you get back from work, exhausted—let's be honest—and you need to hit the gym but just can't muster the energy. Perform your move, and if you've truly linked it up, it'll power you up!

Skipping workouts doesn’t have to be the norm. Armed with the right mental tools and shifts, you can navigate past barriers and make exercise a joyful and essential part of your life. Embrace the mental and physical journey of fitness, celebrate your progress at every step, and relish the transformation that unfolds.

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If you’re looking for a more detailed guide on how to use NLP to rewire your brain for exercise and take control of your life, check out our digital toolkit, Motivation On Demand. Packed with practical exercises and insights, it’s designed to help you instantly turn on your motivation and keep it burning bright. Don’t wait for tomorrow – start your transformation today.