Let's cut right to the chase, and start with real heart of the matter. The real reason you haven't been able to keep up exercising in the past. And it's simple.
The fact is that for most of us, making an agreement with ourselves alone is not enough to make a significant change. This might be hard to admit, because it may sound like admitting a weakness or flaw, but if we all sat down together and told the truth, you'd hear that it's actually this way for just about everybody.
Meanwhile, just about everybody ignores a very positive trait that almost all of us share. Because although it's a fact that most of us simply aren't very good at keeping agreements with ourselves alone, it's just as true that most of us do a terrific job of keeping our important agreements with others. We may criticize ourselves for the ways we don't always live up to this ideal, but that's mainly because it's so important to us. In fact, this drive is so strong that you can probably give several examples of sacrifices you've made, times you've kept agreements others at a cost to yourself.
If you look within yourself, we bet you will see that this is truly one of your core values, a part of you that is so true, so deep, that it will never change. And this, for many people, is the key to successfully maintaining a new exercise program.
Research bears this out. Studies have shown that people are more likely to engage in regular exercise if they do it with a partner. In addition, the likelihood that you will continue exercising increases when your relationship with your exercise partner is important to you in other social contexts. Other studies have demonstrated that married couples who voluntarily begin a supervised fitness program are less likely to drop out than the married men and women who join without their spouses. In fact, half of married people who join fitness programs alone end up dropping out quickly.
So the secret to starting an exercise program you'll stick with is to harness this powerful force that already exists in you. Make your agreement part of an important relationship.
You'll go on for the sake of that other person when you might not continue for your own good alone. They'll do the same for you. Your relationship will become stronger and more important, making it an every more powerful force to keep you going.
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