Why Can't I Stay Motivated to Exercise?

Why can’t I stay motivated to exercise? Am I just lazy?

The Good News: You are probably not lazy!

The Bad News: You may never enjoy exercising for the sake of being well-exercised.

Naturally Motivated to Exercise...Or Not So Much

A person’s perceived lack of motivation to exercise is actually his/her natural response to their need for leisure and rest. According to the research of Professor Steven Reiss, PhD, some people naturally need to exercise and find it energizing and fun. Other people need to relax and lounge around and find exercising exhausting, or at best, a necessary evil. Leisurely motivated people usually can’t wait for exercising to be over.

Professor Reiss developed the Reiss Motivation Profile?, which accurately and reliably measures 16 basic human needs/motives which all humans have in-common. One of these basic human values/motives, is the need to be physically active. If someone is naturally wired to need physical activity, then s/he is motivated to be active physically, and feels frustrated if the need is not satisfied to the extent the person feels is needed.

No Pain-No Gain

One can see how strong this “physical need” is by listening to how a natural athlete describes their feelings of satisfaction (being in the zone) when exercising. An athlete can become highly passionate in their description of how important and good exercise is for their sense of well-being because, just thinking of exercise can create positive feelings inside of them. One can also judge someone's personal significance on the need for exercise by listening to the frustration experienced and expressed by an injured athlete, who is prevented from exercising. Often an injured, high need for physical exercise, person’s need to exercise is so strong and their frustration is so great, that they return to their exercise program far too soon and too strenuously. The end up reinjuring themselves or at least prolong their recovery period. Why would they be so motivated to exercise? They truly experience first-hand the feeling of “no pain, no gain” with their gain being the end of their frustration and the satisfaction of their need to exercise. The athlete’s brain is wired to produce feelings of satisfaction through physical exertion.

No Rest-No Way

Leisurely people with a low reported need for physical exercise typically feels exhaustion and fatigue following forcing themselves to exercise. These people actually look forward to getting their exercise over with, so they can rest.

Interestingly, athletes with a high need for physical activity, often report that they cannot rest unless they get their workout in. People with a low need for physical activity say that they cannot exercise unless they are well rested. The same activity, physical exercise, can invigorate and satisfy one person and yet, fatigue and frustrate another person. The same polar opposite motives exist on all 16 basic human needs. These natural motivational differences can create great conflict in interpersonal relationships, unless we understand the difference and learn to practice value-based tolerance.

Hope for the Leisurely

If you are having trouble finding and maintaining your motivation to exercise, is it possible you may be a leisurely person who has a chronic leisure deficit. When was the last time you felt fully rested and rejuvenated? Do you give yourself permission to rest the amount of time, in the ways which you find most rejuvenating? If you are motivated to seek leisure and are not well rested, then you will probably not have the energy or motivation to force yourself to exercise because you need to rest first. Non-medical/biologically caused chronic fatigue, could be a sign you simply need more rest.

A leisurely person may find low impact physical activity more tolerable, such as yoga, walking, cycling or other less strenuous forms of exercise. Also, using one of your stronger needs such as one’s desire to avoid sickness and death by being healthy, can help motivate the non-physically driven person.

Understanding one’s needs is the key to understanding one’s behaviors and predicting future behaviors. By appealing to the most appropriate need, a person is able to complete a behavior she might otherwise not find naturally attractive or desirable.

Empathetic Understanding for Inspirational Leader-Coaches

Leader-Coaches, who have a clear understanding of their peoples’ unique motivations and needs, can inspire them to consistent performance. They help people tie possible need satisfaction of multiple needs to the feelings of satisfaction of doing one desired behavior. Leaders cannot motivate other people to perform. All motivation is intrinsic to each individual. Leaders can inspire someone to explore how their initial thoughts and reactions about doing a task can be re-framed to shift from being undesirable to satisfying. Leader-coaches can be masterful at inspiring desired performance by their empathetic understanding of their peoples’ values/needs/desires and key motives.

Inspire Results

How can a leader-coach inspire a leisurely person to exercise? If the leisurely person has asked for coaching support and given permission to help, then the leader-coach, who knows the person's complete profile of 16 basic motivations, can help. The leader-coach attempts to support the leisurely person to link other motives to help inspire the person to naturally want to do something because they see it as a possible way to satisfy their needs.  For example: If a leisurely person also has a high need for avoiding pain or injury, then the health benefits/illness and death avoidance of exercise, might be stronger than the need for leisure. The leisurely person could then find the drive to exercise. Not because they like exercising, but because they don't want to be sick or die prematurely.  People are always motivated to do things for their own reasons. Because they feel they need to.

Working Together Better

AD Growth Advisers Inc., offers a one-day training for leaders and teams called Value-based Collaboration. This highly interactive session explores all of our unique needs and shows similarities and differences within a team. This is a very effective way to experience first-hand how natural differences can create conflict and how inclusive and diverse cultures can flourish with emphatic understanding.

What to Understand What Motivates and Frustrates You?

The Reiss Motivation Profile? (RMP) is a standardized, comprehensive online assessment of a person's needs, interests, motives, values and life goals. The business version is used in coaching, team building, and leadership training. Andy Dix, a Reiss Profile? Master and Board Certified Executive Coach, has guided hundreds of individuals and teams to a better understanding of what motivates and frustrates them.

About the RMP

Length: This is 128-item self-report online English questionnaire which typically takes 15-20 minutes to complete.

Administration: A client can complete the questionnaire online from any computer that is connected to the Internet. Your personalized Reiss Profile? the report will be emailed to you in as a .PDF file.

Results: You receive a Reiss Profile? report. Your report will help you to discover what your individual needs/values and/or desires mean for your job performance, leadership, team/company loyalty, competitive spirit, risk taking, and numerous other business-relevant behaviors.

The 16 Basic Human Needs Profiled Are:

Acceptance, the need for approval

Beauty, the need for aesthetically-appealing environment

Curiosity, the need to understand

Eating, strength of interest in food

Expedience, motivation to take practical advantage of opportunities

Family, the need to spend time with family

Idealism, the need to improve society

Interdependence, motivation to rely on others

Order, the need to be organized

Physical Activity, the need for exercise

Power, the need to lead

Saving, the need to collect

Social Contact, the need for friends

Status, the need for prestige

Tranquility, the need to play it safe

Vengeance, strength of competitive spirit

To Purchase your Reiss Motivation Profile?:

https://adgrowthadvisers.com/reiss

Additional Value Offer

Should you decide to expand your professional engagement with Ad Growth Advisers, we will credit the price of your Reiss Profile? off of our first month's service fee or training session.

Andy Dix, MS, BCC, CPT, is President/Senior Adviser at AD Growth Advisers Inc. an executive advisory firm specializing in executive coaching, change management, employee engagement and motivation analysis for performance improvement. You can contact Andy at 317-538-3231 or [email protected]. Learn more at https://adgrowthadvisers.com