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Singapore 218108
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You can make up plenty of methods to motivate yourself to follow healthy lifestyle. But the combative mood disappears as soon as laziness looms on the horizon. Even the word “must” becomes powerless, if it comes to a regular gym work-out. In this article we will discuss the actual reasons of “sports” laziness. How to harness your willpower and finally start working out? Perhaps, you don’t really need to fight laziness, and it’s easier to seal the deal with it?
Contents:
Laziness – is an antipathy to labor, total absence of willingness to do something. It doesn’t let us achieve goals we’ve set, improve our skills, learn something new and be active – all in all, to live to the fullest. [1]
There are many theories about “origins” or laziness. Some people believe, that each person is lazy by nature. Disputable statement, if to speak about curious babies, who are eager to perform many actions on their own. They explore this world with an admirable enthusiasm.
One more theory is based on the idea that laziness – is the natural reaction of human organism on tiredness. This personal trait occasionally shows itself in everyone who needs physical and emotional rest, in order to “reload” and come back to work with the new energy. [2]
However, most of psychologists agree on the opinion that laziness is an absolutely acquired trait, it’s the pathological behavior pattern. It’s a bad habit which can be defeated, if you desire this. [1]
Except for physical and emotional tiredness, there are no real reasons not to do what you have to. Everything else is a very convenient excuse for your own idleness. Meaning, it’s not a pure laziness, but an unconscious reaction of your organism on certain activities. Physical exercise is the best example. The impression is that couch potatoes are constantly making up reasons not to do any sport. There’s no time, no money, they need to quit smoking and balance their diet first, all kinds of excuses can appear. The person gets enthusiastic over the idea, but the next day, literally, all his good intentions disappear..
To find the way to fight laziness and start working out at home or in the gym, you need to realize where the core of the problem is. It doesn’t matter, where or how you are going to get in good shape – at home alone or in the gym at the group classes. Think about which of these reasons disturb you from starting your productive training sessions.
It’s often the case that laziness covers a lack of self-confidence. A person postpones important business, unconsciously expecting failure. The same is with the sports. There is a desire to get back in shape, but a person is paralyzed with the fear of failure. Those with the lack of self-confidence have already formed a mind-set for themselves – “don’t even bother to start, you can’t lose weight/build muscles/improve health anyway”.
It seems, that complexes connected with appearance must motivate to get engaged in some sports. However, more often they just prevent from focusing on productive exercises. Plenty of fears appear and can get on your way – “more experienced sportsmen and coach will laugh at my failures”, “these tight yoga pants make my legs seem fat”, etc. It all ends up in finding another excuse to stop going to the fitness training sessions.
The “right” goal motivates for decisive actions, “wrong” – for retards. If a person repeatedly postpones gym training sessions or quits his workouts “half-way”, perhaps, the reason is wrong goal.
“I’m 35, it’s time to start doing sports”, “it would be nice to lose weight”, “I need to sing in for fitness, as my friend does” – all of these are blurry phrases, which don’t motivate, but just state the facts. They definitely won’t help to find a way to overcome laziness and start working out. Today you set yourself up to the workout, but tomorrow you will forget that you were so eager to lose weight. It’s necessary to work on your motivation.
When sport becomes a sort of punishment for a bun eaten before, sooner or later laziness wins – and you are on the couch again, not in the gym. The right attitude plays a huge role in achieving your goal. Sport is not an exception. It’s necessary to change your attitude to a healthy lifestyle.
You should differentiate for you “Want” and “have to”. Some people, due to their character or mind sets, built up in the childhood, are just not able to make themselves do what is necessary. They don’t have enough self-control, self-restraint and self-regulation.
Sometimes sport, if to speak about diseases connected with obesity, is an urgent necessity. But even this is not an argument for a person with a weak will power. He will continue to laze away, postponing training sessions for later.
Start working out when you are lazy is not a success yet. It’s much harder to start loving exercising and set your mind on the idea, that sport will become an integral part of your life. Not everyone can do this easily. Dusty gym membership card and wrinkled sportswear somewhere on the upper shelf of a closet – that’s what usually happens when laziness wins, and the dream to get back in shape stays only a dream.
How to start working out and don’t lose your goal “half-way”? Use the recommendations of psychologists to get over your laziness:
If you are too lazy to work out at home alone, find an “ally” and go to gym together. Group training sessions are the best choice for those who usually need an outside support and positive example to achieve their goals.
And when you’ll be about to miss the session, a friend can encourage you, or even to tell you off for your infirmity of purpose.
If you didn’t succeed in finding someone like-minded, chose training sessions with a personal coach. Such classes have a plenty of advantages, the main of which is a powerful motivation from a pro. What is more, coach will explain and show how to do each of the exercises, and it’s crucial for newcomers at the gym.
For sure, a coach will challenge you for more than you do. But, sometimes, this is what a lazy person needs not to deviate from his goal.
Sometimes motivational videos help overcome laziness to start working out. Watch and read success stories of real people – how they managed to lose weight, how they eat and train. Don’t just admire their stamina and determination, extract some useful information, which can help you make your trainings more productive.
Motivational videos will be useful even if you’ve signed to the gym already. They won’t let you forget about the goal which encouraged you to come to the light side of the healthy lifestyle.
Nothing motivates as good as an achieved success. Surely, you will notice first positive changes even after the first week of workouts – short wind is not that bad, muscles don’t hurt anymore, the mood is great. Don’t be satisfied with what has been already achieved and go on working on yourself, record your every move.
Do you notice some success in your training sessions? Don’t forget to reward yourself. This habit works especially well, when you aren’t in the mood to go to gym. Dreamlike goals – good health and longevity – are worthy of respect, of course. But the reward can be tangible, which is very effective for motivation increase and gaining more success.
You should decide for yourself, what the reward is – new clothes for each 5 kilos lost or your favourite TV show after exhaustible two-hours workout.
Many people are used to live by the rule “always keep my promises”. That’s great. Use your positive personal traits to achieve your goal. Make a promise to someone close – your wife/husband, a friend, a child, parents – to regularly visit the gym. This will encourage you to exercise energetically, even when you want to give up on sport.
If desired, you can even bet some money with someone on your flawless training sessions without “no-shows” for a certain period of time. This would be even more interesting, with the thrill of the race.
You realize, that you can’t overcome laziness on your own and can’t even do sports at home? See a psychologist, to effectively and safely combat the habit of postponing important business for later. The perfect results of working on unhealthy mind sets are put in a strong performance in the course on 7Spsy behavior modification technique. It is the patented method of behavior psychology, based on the theories of famous psychologists I.P. Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, A.A. Ukhtomsky and others.
The course can help to change pathological behavior pattern which makes laziness stronger than the desire to go in for sports. You will find the real reason of your unwillingness to go to gym. When understood, what is covered under your false laziness – complexes, lack of self-confidence, fears – you will be able to work on your behavior effectively, to find the “right” motivation and be loaded with positive mood. After changing your negative mind sets and your attitude to workouts, you can confidently come to gym and bend on regular training sessions.
The training on 7Spsy behavior modification technique is intended to last up to 6 weeks. You will work on it in the comfortable distant mode, involving all needed psychological support via cell phone, e-mail or on-line chats. You can keep it a secret from everyone – participation in the program is held in strict confidence.
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