How to Motivate Yourself to Stay Healthy
Did you make a resolution to take on more healthy habits this year and you're already falling off the wagon? Here is a fool-proof strategy for how to motivate yourself this year.
This is the first post in a five part series on the topic of how to stay healthy and keep good habits going.
How to Motivate Yourself
According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, roughly 52% of us made New Year’s Resolutions that involved getting healthier – like losing weight, stopping smoking, working out more or some sort of self-improvement in 2017. They also report that (42%) of us will be dropping these resolutions after a month.
So why is this the case? I mean, we’re generally pretty good about keeping other commitments in our lives, why can’t we keep well-intentioned commitments when it comes to health?
Becoming healthier is a really good idea. But to get us to change our behavior – to actually change the way we eat, move, sleep and manage our stress on an ongoing basis – requires a really powerful motivator. We need a reason that makes it “absolutely essential” for us to do something differently, and think of ourselves differently. Our lame excuses need to be trumped by a greater calling. We need a real sense of urgency and a stronger “why.”
Read about how to do this here.
Leigh Stringer is a workplace strategy expert and researcher. She works for EYP, an architecture, engineering and building technology firm and is the author of The Healthy Workplace: How to Improve the Well-Being of Your Employees—and Boost Your Company’s Bottom Line.
Co-Founder / COO - Global Women 4 Wellbeing
7 年For those that struggle the most with this, there has to be a deeper connection to the "why." Achieving some success, however small, is critical to sustaining behavior change. Goals that are realistic and then achieved can be motivating. Being accountable to someone...a coach, a friend, family, or a workout partner...can make a big difference. Every single day is an opportunity to do it differently. One day at a time. Thanks Leigh Stringer!
Expertise in your corner | ????? | MIT | HBS | ?? )'( ??
7 年Motivation is simple: choose a gym full of gorgeous people, and with every lift of a dumb bell, look at the sexiest person there and think, "I want that body!!!" (Of course what you mean is that you want your body to look like that body. But you might tap into some *other* kind of motivation as well.) I find that simply going for the fundamental motivations: sex, drugs, rock n' roll, has the best track record.
Adult Care Management, Benefits Design, Speaker
7 年Our big "whys" get to the heart, not just the head. We need an emotional connection to the benefit of the change. Thanks for a great post, Leigh Stringer