2 Practical Strategies To Make Yourself Work Out

Everyone wants to look better, feel better and live a longer, more satisfying life.

One of the keys to unlock that door is exercise.

But

A whole lot of people can’t make themselves exercise, despite their best intentions.

It’s not always easy to roll out of bed, shake out the cobwebs and hit the gym before your kids wake up.

No matter how badly you want to.

Making yourself do things that are good for you is really hard. It’s why most people fail and why most people are stuck hating their bodies. It’s probably YOUR biggest issue.

There are some easy, practical strategies that you can implement RIGHT NOW to make yourself be more accountable to your goals.

Here are 2.

1. Priority To Do List Scheduling

This is the method I use.  It requires a little bit of work every night, but it alleviates all morning anxiety.

Every night you need to write down your priorities for the day.  Write down everything. Mine includes work stuff, family stuff, exercise stuff and even down time stuff.

Then you create a schedule based on your priorities for the day. 

If something is on your schedule there is an 80% chance it’s going to get done.  Odds are you’re going to do it 80% of the time- even if you don’t want to.

For example. Let’s say you want to go to the gym every day from 6:00 AM- 7:00 AM. 

You make it a priority and you write it on your schedule.  Will you adhere perfectly? No.  But will you adhere at least 80% of the time? Most likely. 

You will because YOU WROTE IT AS A PRIORITY.  It’s not someone else’s priority- it’s yours. 

2. The Seinfeld Method.


What’s the deal with...I don’t know, sorry. 

When Seinfeld was an up and coming comic he had a very simple goal every day: write two jokes.

To hold himself accountable he got a typical wall calendar, and displayed it in his studio apartment.  When he wrote the first joke he made a diagonal line on today’s date.

When he wrote the second joke he made an opposing diagonal line on today’s date.

The two lines formed an X, and he could see that he achieved his goal.

This method allowed him to track his consistency day to day, week to week and even annually.

He could see when he struggled, and he could easily make himself focus because he KNEW that he had to.

You can use this method to track your actions towards any goal.  Make a line when you prep your lunch, then make the second line after you hit the gym,

Make a line when you wake up at your alarm, make a second one when you get to bed before midnight.

When it comes to change we need to throw away the clinical and the theoretical.  All those complicated strategies and methods you read about aren’t worth shit.

Because you’re not going to do them.

If you want to change you need to find SIMPLE solutions to implement today.

Start Training

Patrick Henigan

Pat Henigan is the owner of Jacksonville Fitness Academy in North Florida. He’s been published in Reader’s Digest, Shape and is a regular guest on News4Jax and writes for Jacksonville Magazine.

He’s been in the trenches coaching since 2010 and has coached MLS players, internationally capped South American Soccer players, SNL Cast Members and multiple Fortune 500 CEOs.

https://www.henigan.io
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