How to start exercising when you really don’t want to

As lockdowns began around the world, many of us optimistically saw it as a sort of New Years resolution opportunity. We promised ourselves we would lose weight, eat better, and emerge from quarantine like a butterfly from a chrysalis.

If you’re laughing right now, you probably also know about how well that works for most people. It’s not easy to stick to new habits, and most of us have ended up overeating and binge watching netflix instead of turning over a new leaf.

Luckily, there are ways you can motivate yourself to get going at a new habit, even if you don’t want to in that given moment.

Allow yourself to be bad at exercising

So your end goal is to have a perfect six pack, and right now you can’t even do one crunch without gasping for breath. That’s okay. Even if you’re only wobbling your way through a single crunch, that’s more than you did the day before.

It’s fine to only run for 30 seconds, because that’s better than nothing. Our mind tends to let us slip back to the easiest possible thing, so if the easiest possible thing is running for one minute instead of not running at all, your worst days will still have you ahead.

Lower your expectations

We all have an image of our head as to what “perfect” looks like. Not only do you want to run a marathon, but you also want to be #1 on the podium. Stop setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Instead, make your goal something you know you can achieve—such as being able to run for two minutes at a time instead of just one.

You can always build off those expectations, but it’s a lot harder to struggle for a goal you may never be able to attain.

Setting a habit doesn’t mean waking up a vegan athlete who can bench press a truck. It’s about helping yourself become one step better than nothing, one step at a time. You can certainly build yourself to what ever level that you want, but in order to reach those goals you need steps—not a wall.