motivation Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Fran's Fitness Over 50

Make it fun and you’ll be motivated

Last week’s article was about wasting time to get back into a project that you’ve been procrastinating on. Say you’re writing an essay and the words just aren’t coming together. You’re staring at that blank screen and nothing’s coming to you. So, take a few minutes and scroll your feed. Just a few minutes. Then come back and chances are you’ll be able to write coherently. On the other hand, if you know exactly what you have to do but don’t want to do it – like exercise for me – make it fun and you’ll be motivated to do it.

Get motivated to exercise

There are more exercise programs out there than anyone can count. There’s bound to be one that you like and will look forward to doing. It’s important for your healthy aging to be consistent in your exercise routine. If you like dance, there are loads of dance-based beginner workouts on YouTube, available when you search. Check them out, and note the instructors you like – their voice, the moves and the music they use. And see if there are more episodes. The more of something you like, the better! Same with other types of workouts. If you like yoga, or Pilates, there are lots of those out there as well. Or put your favorite music on for 45 minutes a day and move! That’s loads of fun, you’ll get your heart up, and get plenty sweaty!

The fun was not in the exercise

The author of a recent article in Psychology Today had a little bit of a different take on the issue. Elizabeth Roper Marcus is 77 now, and several years ago decided that she should exercise. She started walking with a friend and that worked for a while, until she realized that the entire reason she was doing it was because it was with that friend. Marcus’ exercise habit was totally dependent on that friend. What happened if the friend couldn’t exercise with her? Then she wouldn’t exercise.

So she took an unused closet, put a treadmill and a TV in there, and watched movies and her favorite shows while she walked. Over time she was able to increase her speed and the treadmill incline. She got stronger and more fit. She found the secret, to make it fun. Of course, walking does not address all the recommendations of the CDC for strength training in addition to the cardio work, so Marcus goes with her husband for that at a gym a couple of times a week. She says that’s not as much fun, but she’s with her husband which makes it better.

My fun in exercise is different

For me, I’ve found a workout program that I like, and do that one or two times a week. I do Pilates-based workouts a couple other days a week, and I run on the treadmill a couple more times a week. I do not like to run (I’ve said that before). But, I enjoy listening to audiobooks, especially mysteries or thrillers, while I run. And that’s what keeps me running, following Marcus’ lead on that one.

As I’ve said before, if you don’t enjoy something, and it’s not absolutely required, you won’t do it. But make it fun and you’ll be motivated.

Waste time to get motivated

So this morning I woke up early, thinking I could write maybe a thousand words in my novel. I was at a crucial point, but a couple of days ago, the last time I tackled this document, I got stuck. I’m at a crucial plot point, and I couldn’t figure out how to resolve the issue. So today, after I got back from the bathroom and made sure the dogs were still sleeping soundly, I turned on my keyboard, got my phone, and was immediately distracted by a news story. Funny, now, I don’t even remember what that story was. I must have wasted ten minutes scrolling the news after reading that story.

Then I shook myself (mentally) and told myself to get to work. Opened the Google Doc and started banging the keyboard. No breaks for about a half hour, until I had to get up and start the day. I didn’t quite make it to a thousand words, but came close. It turns out that it’s actually a proven productivity method: waste time to get motivated.

Scroll social media?

In fact, Joi Foley of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, advocates scrolling social media as a way to get away from the pressure you put on yourself when you’re stuck. If you’re working on a project and are stymied on where to take it, chances are your path will become clear after a break. And scrolling your social media accounts for a few minutes can provide that break. Thinking about a great bread pudding recipe, for example, can let your mind solve that other, totally unrelated, problem. The key here is to get back on track after a few minutes. If you like this solution to problem-solving, you may want to use an app to get you back to your task after a set time period.

Do nothing

Another way Foley can waste time to get motivated is to do nothing. Just sit and breathe. I’ve advocated meditation myself. It’s sometimes hard to get the noises out of your head, though, to meditate properly. Perhaps a short guided meditation can help you focus on something else.

Work for 5 minutes

So another time-waster Foley suggests is to just work for 5 minutes. Goodness knows, sometimes those 5 minutes can seem like forever when I’m working on a project I wasn’t looking forward to. So after those 5 minutes are up, do something else. Chances are, you’ll start thinking about the project you left and get the urge to start working on it again.

Take a walk

I also advocate a change of scenery. Take a short walk. That often helps me clear my head and want to dive into a project when I get back. Taking a walk not only helps productivity but also contributes to your happiness.

All this time-wasting is contributing to your productivity. By strategically doing other things, and thinking about other stuff, you’re actually doing more to get the stuff you really want to get done, done. And that will make you happier, more optimistic, and more resilient. It contributes to your healthy aging and you’ll get the urge to get even more stuff done.

Outside factors do affect your motivation

In a perfect world, you’d wake up in the morning, fired up to work out, run all your errands, and knock three things off your Goal-Setting Go-Getter To-Do List by 11. And you’d still have time to get a good start on saving the world by lunch. But, we know things don’t work that way. The way my day started: the alarm went off, I rolled over to turn it off. Put my feet into my slippers and hobbled into the bathroom because my back and hip let me know that it would be a bursitis day. Wandered back into the bedroom to get dressed. Turned the light on to find that my old dog had thrown up on the towel he sleeps on, on the bed. (Thank goodness it was on the bed!) Hurriedly got dressed, gathered up the dirty towel, picked up the old guy, and ushered the others outside. Motivation for the rest of the day: shot. So, outside factors do affect your motivation. For sure.

Overcoming outside factors affecting our plans

So how do we deal with that? How do we overcome those outside factors that affect our plans for every day?

Of course, we have to deal with things that come up that require immediate attention – like cleaning up the old dog and putting the towel in the laundry room for the next load. But we just have to deal with the other things that stick around that affect our plans. Like the chronic pain of bursitis. Some of you may have chronic back or knee pain. It’s not fun, and every so often it’s more acute than others. But it’s something that’s not going away. So we deal with it.

Is it possible to maintain positive momentum then?

But to maintain our motivation to move forward with our plans, remaining in that mindset of having to deal with external factors is not going to work. We have to actually change our mindset and decide that we’re not going to settle for just cleaning up dog vomit. Once we tend to the immediate problem, it’s time to get going.

Achieving a growth mindset

It may be time to cross those little niggly things off the To Do List – ones that don’t take a lot of brain power but just need to get done. You’ve accepted the fact that you may not get some really deep thinking done today to make great strides toward your ultimate goal, but you can do some of the little things that will inch your way forward. This encourages your growth mindset – your ability to change and grow, become more resilient and positively impact your mental state. So, settle the dog in a nice bed by your workstation, take a deep breath, and check off some boxes.

Yes, outside factors do affect your motivation, but that doesn’t mean that they rule your actions. Decide to move forward.

For more tips on maintaining your momentum, grab the “Get It Done” Guide.

Just one more!

I don’t know too many people who are excited to exercise. I’m not. I do it because the benefits I get from exercise allow me to do the things I actually want to do. But I know that in order for the exercise to keep giving me those benefits, I have to keep challenging myself. You probably know that many days I do my workouts with a pre-recorded program. I pick up my weights and follow along. As the years have gone by, I’ve increased the intensity and the weights I use. I’ve gotten stronger, and the old weights were no longer challenging. I also want to be able to do more regular push-ups because I want to get stronger. To motivate myself, I tell myself, “Just one more!”

The key to motivation

And that’s the key to motivation. “Just one more” can be your watchword, your spark, for anything you’ve got in your sights. One more pound to lift. Run another tenth of a mile. Walk one more block. Write another chapter. Knit another row. The sky’s the limit when you tell yourself, “Just one more!”

Stagnation is the worst thing

I believe that the worst thing we can do is stagnate. If we don’t grow, if we don’t evolve, then I think we can just dig a hole and get comfortable there. By growing and developing new talents we learn more about ourselves and the world.

Develop a “growth mindset”

And in challenging ourselves, we develop what’s known as a “growth mindset.” We aren’t satisfied with the way things are now, with ourselves. We know that we can be better. We can become more fit, for ourselves and the people who love us. And we can explore more things. We’re not satisfied with our current knowledge base. Sometimes that’s scary. But by learning more about the things that scare us they lose the aspects that we fear. We can bounce back and become more resilient as fewer things scare us. Sure, there are other scary things out there, but we may have to look harder for them.

When we can do “Just one more,” then perhaps we can do two more, and conquer the world that much faster.

Don’t use fear as a motivator

It’s Fall – when we strive to prevent falls

It’s officially Fall according to the calendar, and my reminder to focus on my balance exercises. It’s an unkind fact – as we get older we not only gain more wisdom (that’s a good thing), we also lose things. Like our eyesight, our hearing, our hair (for some), our bone density, and our sense of balance. Falls are a primary cause of sending us seniors to the hospital. And once we’ve fallen, we live in fear of falling again. We may not be able to do much about our eyesight and hearing, but we can work to improve our balance. Fear of falling is a powerful nudge to get us working on our balance, but don’t use fear as a motivator.

Negative motivators are powerful

Fear has been called the most powerful motivator to get us to do something. And it certainly works. For a while. But we become fatigued. We can’t live in fear day in and day out. It’s not enough to be afraid of falling to get us to do the simple balance exercises. Fear tends to paralyze us. And if we don’t fall one day, or two, or a week, then we lose the motivation. We’re still afraid of falling, because the memory is there, but it’s no longer so powerful.

I learned a lot about aging

I started my balance journey a number of years ago after I fell and injured my knee and hips. It’s true that knowing our balance diminishes is often not enough to get us to work on it, though. In fact, I didn’t know about that aspect of aging until I started doing some research. I didn’t like the fact that losing balance is a natural part of aging, so I decided to see if there was something to do about it. Happily, I also learned that simple exercises (you can do the Core-Centered Balance Moves too) can help us regain the balance we’ve lost over time. This is a long-term prospect. Much like general exercises for the rest of our bodies, the benefits are lost if we don’t do them and they’re cumulative if we keep on doing the exercises. So we need additional motivation to keep us working on our balance.

Negative motivators are exhausting

But fear is a negative motivator, which never works as well as positive ones over time. Negative motivators are tiring. They’re unsustainable. Negative motivators work really well in the short term – like making you hurry if you’re late to an appointment and fear the consequences. Negative motivators are great at getting you to avoid doing things – like going out of your house if you’re afraid of falling. Positive motivators work much better in the long run at helping you to take action. You’ll want to go places and visit friends and family if you’re confident that you can do so safely. You’ll be able to bounce back and be more resilient if you’re confident in your independence.

So don’t use fear as a motivator to practice your balance moves. Instead, think of the confidence you’ll gain by your improved balance. You can step out of your door with confidence. You’ll revel in your independence. You’ll know that even if you do step on uneven pavement, the Inline Walking exercise that you do every week (yes, I know it looks and feels weird) will help you keep your balance.

It’s just two minutes a day. Practice your balance. Be confident.

Third type of motivation

A while ago I told you about 2 kinds of motivation – extrinsic and intrinsic. External and internal motivation – your motivation is fueled by outer forces, or you’re motivated because you enjoy the project. But, that doesn’t explain how people who do not like to exercise still get up, change their shoes and work out five days a week. The benefits of exercise don’t matter. When it comes to doing a bunch of burpees and getting hot and sweaty, I don’t care if this will help me remember things. I’d rather do a Sudoku puzzle. My heart is fine, thank you. My healthy aging? Doing great, thanks. And as long as I can zip my jeans, my weight is good.

What makes mundane tasks more motivating?

So here’s where the third type of motivation comes in. The Harvard Business Review did a study on how to make even the most mundane tasks more motivating. And you might be surprised at the results.

Do it for others

Do it for others. You’re part of a team. When you exercise, you make an investment in yourself. Your family needs and depends on you. You exercise for them. And that’s the third type of motivation. The motivation that inspires you to go above and beyond what you think you’re capable of. The thing that makes you push beyond what you thought were your boundaries. You can achieve more than you ever thought possible when you do things for the people in your life who you love, and who love you.

Your secret weapon

The third type of motivation goes much further than intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. This motivation brings in a secret weapon – other people. You can use these other people as your exercise team. Some people are able to sustain exercise when they do it with others, either as part of a group class or an accountability group. When I took group step classes, for example, I was able to forget how out of breath I was. The music and cheering of others lifted me up and kept me going. My classmates, or my team, motivated me to continue stepping, jumping, and lunging past the point where I might have stopped.

Your accountability team can also keep you going. If you have a group that checks in with each other once a day, for example, you know that you’re going to have to tell them that you worked out for a half hour or 45 minutes, or an hour. Or you have to tell them that you wussed out and didn’t exercise. Most times peer pressure motivates us to do the thing we really don’t want to do.

If you really like to exercise – great! Do it. If the benefits you get from exercise motivate you to work out, that’s good too. But if these types of motivation just aren’t doing it for you, you can rely on the third type of motivation to get you up and moving. Exercise for others.

The Rewards you Get

COVID takes your brain to interesting places. You’re sitting there and trying to focus, and your brain takes a detour down a rabbit hole. The other day I was thinking about positive reinforcement training and rewards. In my other life, I’m a dog trainer, using positive methods, and lots of rewards. So I thought, what’s different about people and motivation – people deserve great rewards when we do awesome stuff, just like our dogs do! Motivation and reward have to be linked, or I wouldn’t get things done.

Rewards in Positive Reinforcement Dog training

When I’m training my dogs, I reward things I like. That has the effect of the dogs doing that thing I liked more, so they get more rewards. Motivation and reward are linked. We say, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” If the reward is a high value treat, my dogs want more of it. They think, “How can I get more of that yummy cheese?” Pause a moment. “Oh yeah. I was sitting.” They probably don’t use words, but I can imagine the thought process goes like that.

Rewards for Humans

When it comes down to it, people like rewards too. Our rewards might take a different form – less cheese, perhaps, and more chocolate, but cheese is good too. I have a feeling that we often disregard the “Reward” part that comes after we complete an item on our “To Do” List. And, yet, to keep us motivated, the reward plays an important part. I always say that we should celebrate every small victory! Every step toward a goal’s completion deserves a reward. Incidentally, achieving goals is also great for our optimism and our resilience.

Enlightened self-interest

Enlightened self-interest is what makes the world go around. If I don’t want to do something, I’m not going to do it unless I have a very good reason to do it. Like exercise. If I were just starting an exercise program, I’d need really good rewards to make me change into workout gear and get all out of breath and sweaty. But if I promise myself that I’ll get a new top if I stick to my program for a solid week, then I’ll stick with it.

Hierarchy of rewards

But not every reward is the same. Just like I do for my dogs, we should have a hierarchy of rewards for us. For a dog, kibble is at the low end of the hierarchy and hot dog may be at the high end. For us? Perhaps taking a five-minute breathing break is at the low end of the reward spectrum, and a new set of colored gel pens at the high.

Or if the task is more difficult, then a new pair of shoes may qualify as a high-end reward. As a reward, that pair of shoes carries much more value than a 5-minute break, so the task it’s rewarded for must be more difficult or time-consuming. Pair the reward with the task. And make sure that the reward is something you really want. You won’t be motivated to perform the task by that reward if you don’t care if you receive it or not!

Don’t wait until it’s finished for a reward

You may think that the carrot dangling on the end of the stick will see that task done to completion. But research has shown that a reward given when a task is started helps to keep us working. If we like the reward, then we have a positive association between it and the task, and it keeps us going. And this immediate reward doesn’t have to be big, either. The study showed that smaller, more frequent rewards had a bigger influence on a person’s motivation to complete a task than a bigger reward when the task was complete. The person’s mindset was changed to continue the task even for a smaller reward.

Motivation and rewards are linked – so make sure you’re clear on what your reward is for performing a task. Make sure the reward is something you actually want. And rewarding yourself for starting a project may just keep you going through to the end.

Motivation when you’re sick

During the height of the pandemic, most of us were vigilant about wearing masks and keeping social distance. Now, three years later, most of us have relaxed our vigilance. We’ve been vaccinated and boosted, and since the virus didn’t greatly impact us, we didn’t think about taking precautions when in a large gathering. And now it’s come back on me. I was at an Agility trial this last weekend, along with over a hundred other people (and their dogs). And now I tested positive and have mild symptoms. I don’t feel all that bad as I’m writing this, but I don’t feel that great either. Working holds no appeal at the moment, and if this article is not up to my usual standards, I apologize. So, how do you maintain your motivation when you’re sick?

Focus on one thing

When you’re sick, focus on one thing to accomplish. Any more than that and you’ll be overwhelmed and end up not getting anything done. So, figure out the most important thing you want to get done. Then, since your brain might not be working at its usual high level, think about how to start that task. Write it down. Motivation when you’re sick requires much more detail than at other times. When you’re well, once you start many tasks, the steps become a natural progression. But when you’re sick, those steps may not be clear. So write the steps down. Writing those steps down will change your mindset from planning to doing.

Do it

Then buckle down and do it. Motivation when you’re sick requires that you stay focused. Your thoughts may want to scatter in different directions, so it’s important that if you want to get things done, you reign in those thoughts and stay focused. This is not easy. I currently have eighteen tabs open in various browser windows. But I set the task of writing this article for myself. And I will finish it!

It’s not easy to maintain motivation sometimes, even when you’re feeling well. But when you’re sick, it’s even more difficult. So just try to get one task accomplished. See how you feel when it’s done. If you’re feeling good after that, move to the next item on your list. Last week I had some tips to maintain motivation, and one was celebrate the smallest victory. That applies here. Finishing anything when you’re ill deserves a celebration!

Things to remember if you’re sick

Meanwhile, things to remember if you are sick with COVID and are treating yourself at home (from the Mayo Clinic) – get lots of rest, drink plenty of water, throw those tissues away and wash your hands a lot. If you can, isolate yourself from the rest of the people in your household. And if your symptoms get worse, see a health professional.

Motivation tips for anything

I recently read an article that had motivation tips that were fashioned for weight loss. But any project, whether it’s short- or long-term, needs the proper motivation to see it through to the end. So here are motivation tips for anything.

Motivation to finish a knitting project

Like knitting a sweater. To me, the fun part is knitting all the pieces. But then I really need strong motivation to put those pieces together. My mom was great at finishing knitted projects. I’d love to do the knitting part, but then I would sew them together and my sweaters would look homemade. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with homemade projects, of course, but my mom’s would look totally professional. I knew that my sweaters wouldn’t look fantastic, so I’d procrastinate until it was summer and I didn’t need a new sweater.

Remember why you started

Obviously I was not motivated to finish that sweater. On the other hand, if the knitted pieces were so gorgeous that I couldn’t wait to wear the sweater, I would have to finish the thing. Every evening I would picture myself wearing the sweater, its softness, how it would drape just perfectly, and keep me toasty warm. And I would pick up the pieces, pin them carefully together, and sew the sweater together. That’s “remembering your ‘why.’”

For weight loss, remembering your ‘why’ is different for every person who wants to lose weight. If you have a trip planned and you want to do a lot of walking, you want to be in the best shape you can be so you can see all the sights. And you know that if you’re at a lean weight, your endurance will be so much better.

Focus on the fun

Another motivation tip for anything is to focus on the fun. For weight loss and getting fit, the process is always more sustainable when your workouts are fun. If you’re having fun when you exercise, you’ll want to lace up your sneakers. You’ll want to move to the great music in the workout. Or perhaps the moves themselves make you want to do them more. Exercise won’t be a chore, it’s something you have fun doing. You can apply this to anything else you have to do. Find the fun in the project. Even if the project itself is mundane, perhaps use different colored pens to spark your interest.

Celebrate even the smallest victory

When the going gets tough, focus on your victories. And for some projects, the smallest victories are the ones that excite you the most. Because those wins are indicators that you are succeeding. If your goal is to do 10 regular pushups when you couldn’t do a single one to start, then completing 2 with great form is time for a celebration.

Celebrate your wins. And your wins will fuel your happiness, and your resilience. You’ll want to keep going for more wins.

More tips in the “Get Up, Get Moving, Get It Done” Guide

When you have things you want to get done, projects you want completed or simply chores to complete, you need the proper motivation. If you’re unsure of your motivation, download the “Get It Done” Guide. It has motivation tips for anything.

When you keep finding other things to do rather than the project you have to finish – you keep procrastinating, download the “Get it Done” Guide.

The Guide is filled with ideas to keep you on the straight-and-narrow to get that stuff done. It give you actionable steps to follow to stay motivated and complete projects.

It will also help you identify time-wasters that prevent you from finishing projects.

The Guide even has a worksheet to get you started on completing the things you want to get done.

It doesn’t have to be fancy

The concept of creating goals for yourself may seem intense and scary. You may picture sitting at a very professional-looking desk with an open journal, colored pens and rulers. A couple of screens and a fancy keyboard may occupy a corner of the desk. But it doesn’t have to be fancy. Planning for your future can be as no-frills as you want it. Whether it’s a goal to become more fit, to eat right, to earn a million dollars, to buy a new house, setting your goals can be as simple as you like. Get a piece of paper and start writing.

Fitness goal? No-frills is best

If one of your goals is fitness, no-frills may be best. You don’t need special equipment or specific workout gear. You just have to be specific about exactly what you want and a timetable to get there. If you know that you want to do strength training two times a week, your own body weight can help you out. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just today I read about 2 celebrities who used mainly body-weight exercises while touring and on location.

Carrie Underwood, country music superstar, worked with a trainer recently on tour to keep her endurance up. She said, “”I try to make the most of my time. I have changed my focus. Instead of just trying to get those external results that I wanted, my goals have changed. I want to be stronger, I want to live longer; those are the things that I want now other than just, ‘I want to fit into that.'” Underwood’s goals and wellness practices still aren’t big or splashy; rather, her habits are things she can “stick with forever,” and that’s what she recommends for others as well. Don’t get fancy – just get it done.

And Pedro Pascal, star of “The Mandalorian,” took a similar approach while on location filming the movie “The Last of Us.” There was no equipment, so he had to rely on body-weight moves for the mobility and movement he needed for the character.

Make a date with yourself

If becoming more fit is one of your goals, there’s no need to join a gym or invest in expensive equipment. Make a date with yourself a few times a week to go for a walk. Have a half-hour dance session. Cue up your favorite playlist and move. Don’t break those dates with yourself! Working toward your fitness goals will make you more optimistic and you’ll feel more powerful and resilient.

Test the waters first for other goals too

And the same kind of thing follows for your other goals. Start by testing the waters. If you want to save money, think about easy ways to start. Don’t buy the most expensive coffee drink. Make coffee at home every day. If you invest in an inexpensive coffee maker (I use a single-cup French Press coffee maker that costs under $10) and a can of coffee grounds, you may find that you like it even better than the expensive stuff you buy at coffee shops you have to travel to. Make your lunch at home a few times a week. Limit your restaurant spending. Maybe don’t buy those shoes this month. Start small.

Achieving your goals doesn’t have to be fancy. Keep working at it. Figure out ways to start small and grow from there.