Last Updated on July 30, 2016 by Michael Brockbank
When it comes to health and fitness, too many people lack proper motivation. Sure, they’ll have ideas of slimming down and putting on old clothes that are several sizes too small. But these ideas are often not enough to keep someone striving for self-improvement. As a result, many will exercise and diet for three months only to slowly quit before the end of the year. How do you keep motivation strong for health and fitness?
Finding Things that Motivate You to Succeed
It’s easy to find a few ideas of what can motivate you at the very beginning. What you need is something that can keep your focus over the long haul. Simply wishing you were so-many pounds lighter may not be enough. Here are a few ideas of how you can keep your drive strong over time.
1. Personalized Goals
Personalized goals are objectives that center around what you truly want out of health and fitness. You can say you want to lose weight or live a healthier lifestyle, but why? Delve deeper into why fitness is important to you.
Personally, I want to dress up as a superhero for Halloween without my gut getting in the way. My wife would love it if I looked like Thor, but I am thinking more of Captain America or perhaps Venom. The point is, this is my personalized goal.
Another good example is that I want to keep up with my children as I’m getting older. Currently, I am undefeated at Kinect games in the house. However, my 11-year old daughter is threatening my supremacy. Call it what you will, but I’ll be damned if my children are going to beat me at my own game.
2. Find an Idol
You’re never too old to idolize someone who exudes success in what you want to accomplish. Whether it’s a sports star or an actor, everyone needs a hero. Someone who can inspire you to commit to exercise and eating right is always a good thing.
Ryan Reynolds is my idol. Not because he’s a good actor and quite the attractive fellow, but because he shows me what I could accomplish even though I am getting older. I am only three months ahead of him, but he looks far better. Ryan Reynolds demonstrates that I can still get more out of my life even if I did recently turn 40.
You don’t have to hang posters up all over your walls or subscribe to a fan blog in order to admire someone for what they represent to you. For instance, I own maybe three Ryan Reynolds movies. However, he plays an important part to motivate me.
3. Being the Best
A competitive edge can be quite powerful when you need something to motivate you. Involving yourself in local sports, engaging the family on social media or even challenging people in your household can help you keep focused. Although you may not be the “best” there ever was, there’s nothing wrong with striving for ultimate success.
I often challenge the children to play various games. If I don’t focus more on health and fitness, they will eventually surpass my abilities. Perhaps it’s the competitor in me, but I cannot let that happen.
One thing I would like to do more often is compete in city leagues. I usually don’t have the money or time. However, I know this would motivate me to focus more on keeping healthy and exercise.
4. Publicize Yourself
One of the biggest reasons why I created this website was to help others by sharing the information I discover about health and fitness. However, it 
also plays into keeping me on my toes. When others are watching my progress, I am more conscious about succeeding. I don’t want to let those who follow me down. I want to show you that I do know what I’m talking about.
Blogging about your experiences gives you a platform in which to share with others. It impacts how you approach the day, even when you don’t write. I usually feel a bit self-conscious about exercising and eating because I openly share this information on social sites and fitness apps. Anyone can see my progress from any of my tools. This helps me from going too far when it comes to snacking or a lack of exercise.
5. Training for Something You Want to Do
The reasons I chose to call this website “Crossing Colorado” is because that is my intention. I want to cross the entire state of Colorado on a bicycle. I sure as hell can’t do it right now, but that is one of the things I am currently working on. It’s my end-game goal.
What would you like to accomplish within your life time? Some people would love to hike a mountain, others would like to climb it. Find something that you can call your end-game goal and take steps to reach that objective. It’s a bit like personalizing your goals but with a much grander focus. Today, I would like to just go camping without wearing myself out too fast.
I was also toying with the idea of playing golf professionally. This would mean I would have to practice every day. IT would be one hell of a workout all week long as I would start focusing on routines to improve my game.
The idea behind this is that training to do what you want can have a profound impact on health and fitness. Even if you’re not good enough to join a team, it’s the effort you put into the process that will make the difference.
6. Impressing the Family
My sister, brother and step-father are all into arm wrestling quite heavily. The last time I was home, I was one of the smallest people in the house – muscle wise that is. I would like to go home and at least look like I fit into the whole dynamic. I’m not much of an arm wrestler, but it would still be nice if I could at least look the part.
Family can be very beneficial when it comes to motivation. Even my other brother, the golfer, has joined me on MyFitnessPal. This gives us an easy platform to support each other in our individual success. Family members that I haven’t seen in years are constantly giving me kudos for losing weight. It’s a real good feeling and builds confidence.
7. Revenge
I’ve brought this up once before, but it can still be quite powerful to motivate you to succeed. I would like to look like a supermodel for my wife and show all those other women who turned me down what they can’t have. This is especially true of my ex and all the women who left me for someone “better.” They say that living well is the best form of revenge. So I will, but I’ll look awesome while doing so.
You really shouldn’t fill yourself with such anger and hatred, though. Revenge can be a strong motivator, but it shouldn’t be your only reason for being healthy and fit. If you’re like me, it’s better to just use it as the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. It’s delicious, but it’s not the only reason you’re eating the cake.
Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
Like I teach my children, “Never give up, never surrender.” It’s never too late to put in a strong effort to reach a higher level of health. You just need to find what will motivate you to work at it. Focus on your objectives and don’t doubt your abilities. You can reach a greater level of physical and mental fitness if you give it all you got.
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Thankyou for a thought provoking post. I particularly like digging deeper into your personal goals. I am going to put some work into this.
One of the big goal for me is to prolong active fit life for as long as possible. I hope to be able to keep doing long hikes into my 80’s. Fred UK
That would be nice. I would just like to go on a short hike without passing out. 🙂 I’m getting there, though.
BTW – I removed the URL you posted. It didn’t exist in WordPress…Sorry.