MOTIVATION

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Book-2: Guide to Total Wellness -1.0

Maintaining motivation has two parts; reasons to keep going and reasons to stop. When you quit something that you had initially decided you wanted to do, it’s because the reasons to stop eventually come to outweigh the reasons to continue. Thus to maintain your motivation you can either strengthen the reasons to keep going or weaken the reasons to quit. Successful motivation efforts generally include both.

There are various ways to weaken the reasons to quit. One of the most effective is to build a schedule in which the most likely to be disturbed activities are done at a time you are least likely to be disturbed. For most people, therefore the best time for exercise would be in the early mornings when the time is all yours, clear of all the other obligations and subject to least disturbances or distractions. It can be difficult enough to push yourself in the best of situations, but when you have other things you could be doing, there is a constant temptation to justify doing those other ‘some things’ instead, by telling yourself that such ‘something’ really needs to be done just then. Do this often enough and you will soon really stop.

Hence, the importance of scheduling and persistence. This will soon create a sense of habit and duty and will make it less likely for you to find other things to do instead.

Most of the successful dieters describe themselves as morning people, however, if you are not a morning person, you can move your exercise period to such later period in the day as suits you and build your schedule around it. For most people, difficulty in getting started in the morning is generally due to lack of enough sleep, something that is in your power to correct. Ideally you should wake up by yourself (without an alarm to wake you) and feel re¬freshed when you do. If that is not the case, you might need to go to bed earlier. While any given factor may make only a small dif¬ference, the various factors add up. Build your total schedule around this exercise period. Fortunately, you will find that as you main-tain your schedule over time, it will seem easier.

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