I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Leo, over at ZenHabits has made another damn fine post well worth the time it takes to read. Do yourself a favor, check it out.

31 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

My personal favorite points are:

1- How you feel after a workout. I always feel great after a good workout. It’s a high. And I let that motivate me the next time: “You know how good you’re going to feel, Leo!�

4 – Having fun. Exercise should be fun. If it isn’t, try a different kind of activity that you enjoy. As long as you’re moving, it’s good for you.

9 – Success stories. I find the success stories of others incredibly inspirational. If a fitness website has success stories, I’ll almost always read them.

14 – Adrenaline rush. I get a rush when I exercise. Ride that rush to complete the workout.

15 – Stress relief. Wound up after a long day at the office? Get out and work off that stress. It makes a world of difference.

and, 26 – Reaching a goal. Set a goal for weight, or your waist measurement, or a number of days to work out, or a number of miles to run this week. Setting and tracking a goal helps motivate you to complete that goal. Make it easily achievable.

I think the last one is key. When I was at my Gym learning Olympic Power Lifting I was focused, intent, motivated and successful at every workout. Even the ones where I started out tired or unsettled garnered great results. When my coach, Jim Schmitz had a falling out with the gyms co-owner and was forced to move his operation to a locale I could not reach within my schedule constraints, my time at the gym became next to useless. I had built in a number of goals around that style of lifting, and when they were no longer achievable my routine fell apart. Goals are essential in all areas of life, but in maintaining an exercise routine they become exceptionally
critical.

Set goals, kick butt, take names!