Make Fitness a Lifetime Goal

Photo by Thowra_uk

A lot of people start all guns blazing on a fitness program, put in a lot of hard work, get pretty fit and then give up until the next time they get the desire to do something about their condition.

I have done something similar myself with running (though I usually do at least something to keep fit all year round).

It’s such a waste of effort to let fitness go once you have achieved it.

I’ve just been thinking why so many of us do this and the answer keeps coming back to me that we try and get fit with activities we just don’t like enough.

And I’ve also come to the conclusion that there’s no point even starting something if we KNOW we’re not going to keep it up for more than a brief period.

Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new stuff – after all you don’t know whether you’ll absolutely fall in love with circuit training or yoga or horse riding until you’ve got over the initial few weeks training – the awkward stage.

I just mean that if you know yourself well enough to be pretty certain you’ll never visit the gym regularly for the rest of your life BEFORE you sign up for membership, you are just kidding yourself when you hand over your hard earned-cash.

You see paying for something never made you fit – only doing it on a regular basis does that.

Try activities that you will look forward to doing, that you’d like to learn, that you think you could enjoy forever given half a chance.

Try loads of different things until you find something you will stick at – simply for the pure pleasure of doing it.

Even if you’re not that enthusiastic about an activity to begin with, give everything a fair chance and you’re more likely to uncover the pursuits that will keep you fit and having fun for the rest of your life.

March 14, 2008 | Filed Under Fitness Motivation