Have you ever noticed how hard it is to stick to something that you don’t enjoy doing? Throughout my professional career I’ve encountered many people who actually want to exercise, but simply don’t find it enjoyable. What’s interesting, however, is that I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy the benefits of regular exercise (eg. better sleep, less stress, mental focus). So today I’ll go over a few ways you can enjoy regular exercise and enjoy the benefits as well!
If I’m to be honest, I’ve gone through seasons in my life where I didn’t enjoy working out. I enjoyed benefits of working out, just not the process. Then one day it finally dawned on me:
people only stick to things they enjoy doing 🙂
From that moment on I made the decision to only focus on exercises that I enjoy doing.
For instance, with cardio I prefer running instead of doing “burpee” exercises because I hate doing burpees. In the same way, whenever I run it’s always outside because running on a treadmill is too boring for me. The key is that whether I do 100 burpees, run outside, or run on a treadmill – I’m still enjoying the benefits of cardio.
The beauty of exercise is that it’s broad. It’s so easy to forget that exercise is not just limited to the gym, weights, and 2-hour workouts. I actually had a friend once tell me: “Emmanuel I simply don’t workout anymore because I find it boring. I love racquetball though, I could play it for hours”. Little did my friend know that playing racquetball IS his workout! Perhaps he didn’t realize this all along because he finds racquetball so effortlessly enjoyable.
In the same way I issue you this exactly challenge. I challenge you to find at least one activity that you enjoy doing so much that it doesn’t seem like exercise.
Because at the end of the day, exercise is nothing more than “moving while having fun”!
Key Takeaways:
- Going through seasons where you don’t feel like working out is normal
- Exercise isn’t limited to just the gym
- Find something that you enjoy doing that doesn’t seem like exercise
