Do you ever listen to yourself? I did one morning as I was getting ready to go to the gym—it was a litany of exercise excuses.
- It’s too hot
- It’s raining
- I’m too tired
- My back hurts
- Why don’t I wait and go later?
I joke I’ve got a PhD in making excuses. I admire my husband Rob because he really knows how to motivate himself. He deals with his own excuses. Whenever I need some motivation, I take a page out of his playbook.
Rob’s Playbook: How to Deal with Exercise Excuses
Here’s what Rob says:
Whenever I find I don’t want to go to the gym or whatever, I review the original reasons for setting my workout goals in the first place. Then I examine the obstacle. Finally, I remind myself how or why I will do it anyway. For example, I motivate myself by writing down the activity goal, why it’s important, my exercise excuses, and how I’ll overcome the excuse. It looks something like this:
| Exercise or Sport | Why I want to do it | What will stop me | How I will do it anyway |
| Tennis | Competition, social aspects, winning, fun. | Rain and assorted aches and pains. A third heart attack. | When it rains, and there’s no tennis, I’ll spend more time at the gym. |
| Gym workouts | Feel good, feel strong, and feel confident. Releases pleasure hormones. | Tend to over-train, injury, need for rest. Often tired and hungry before I get to the gym. | The same reason they climb Mount Everest… because it’s there. |
| Cycling | Strengthens legs and improves heart and lungs. | Cold, rain, and muddy roads. Potholes. Traffic. | Being outdoors in nature (what’s a little rain?). |
Achieving goals can be a powerful motivator in a senior’s life. Some of the super seniors we know love striving for goals, such as learning a language, playing a new instrument, or living to 100. We need to achieve and our motivation is piqued by getting tasks done quickly and effectively.
When it comes to our core intrinsic motivations, age is no barrier. Age is merely a limitation we impose on ourselves. As basketball coach Pat Riley said,
“There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in between.”
Are You IN or OUT?
It’s easy enough to say you want to stay healthy by exercising; it’s easy to say we believe it’s good for us, that it will prolong our lives and improve our looks and how we feel. Who doesn’t want that?
But true commitment that lasts is all about finding the core reasons you want to make changes. The same is true for exercise excuses. What really matters to you? Do you want to look better for your spouse? Feel better? Live longer, maybe be around longer for your grandkids or your great-grandkids? Dance better? Have better sex? Increased confidence?
Find out what truly matters to you and make that commitment to do what it takes. If you really mean it, you just do it, no matter what.
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