You want to get in shape. Maybe you've made yet another New Year's
resolution to do it. So what's stopping you? You've probably read about
the long-term benefits of exercise: disease reduction, longevity, weight
loss. But as anyone who has tried -- and failed -- to adopt a regular
fitness routine realizes, knowing that exercise will benefit you in the
distant future isn't the best motivation.
People who successfully maintain a workout regimen learn to shift
their focus from distant, external outcomes like losing weight to
positive, internal experiences in the here and now. They become what I
call "intrinsic exercisers." And you can become one, too.
The philosophy of intrinsic exercise is my own, but it is based on
years of scientific research that I have synthesized to create a whole
new way of thinking about fitness. A seminal paper on intrinsic
motivation by Robert White, Ph.D., for example, was published in the
Psychological Review back in 1959. Other parts of the theory are derived
from the groundbreaking work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., on the
concept of flow. Numerous studies on motivation and physical activity
have been published since then, but people remain unaware of their
findings. So I have reworked and unified this research to create a more
complete picture -- the theory of the intrinsic exerciser.
The core concept behind intrinsic exercise is to exercise for its
own sake. Because if you don't get something out of every single run or
spinning class you take, you won't keep doing it. You will need to
achieve four specific mental states to develop a mind-set powerful enough
to motivate you to exercise -- and like it -- under any life condition.
They are: personal meaning orientation, mastery, inner synergy and
flow.
Personal meaning orientation helps you find exercise rewarding in
and of itself. How? First, you use exercise to explore who you are.
Intrinsic exercisers articulate why they are working out and what they
hope to get from it. Only when exercise becomes personally meaningful
will you be motivated to do it regularly.
Next, you learn to monitor improvements in your own performance, a
concept known as mastery. Intrinsic exercisers focus on challenging
themselves and meeting personal goals, like lifting five more pounds,
instead of comparing themselves with other people, which can be
frustrating and intimidating. A mastery focus keeps you motivated.
Personal meaning orientation and mastery connect you to your
workouts. Inner synergy and flow help you stay connected.
As business guru Stephen Covey once explained, we all have four
basic needs--physical, mental, social and spiritual. Inner synergy refers
to their integration. By linking exercise to every other area of your
life, you'll want to keep doing it. For example, you can use exercise to
practice concentration or to socialize by meeting a friend for a jog.
Physical activity can also be a way to explore your own spirituality:
Running in a charity marathon or simply taking a walk outdoors, for
example, can help you meditate on the natural world and forces beyond
yourself.
Perhaps the best way to stay intrinsically motivated during
exercise is to reach "flow," an optimal psychological state involving
total absorption in -- and connection to -- an activity. Consider it
psychology's version of "the Zone." If you can reach it, you'll want to
exercise again and again to attain that positive state of mind.
Flow is all about staying in the moment. Father of flow Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi has outlined several strategies for finding flow in
physical activity. I have adapted some specifically to help you become an
intrinsic exerciser:
Set clear goals. With flow, it's not achieving an endpoint that's
important; it's the process of achieving. But without a clear, specific
goal for every exercise session, it is difficult to concentrate on your
actions and avoid distractions.
Tune in to feedback. Learn to gauge feedback that the mind and body
provide during exercise. Staying aware of your progress during your
workout keeps you connected to what your body is doing and how it's
feeling.
Balance perceived challenge and skill. If you're not being
challenged, you will become bored and quit. This typically happens after
beginners have been exercising for a few weeks and the novelty begins to
wear off. You must create new challenges for yourself, setting goals that
make you work harder physically, changing the focus of goals from social
to spiritual, anything that will up the ante. If you are challenging
yourself beyond your skill level, you will also become frustrated and,
again, avoid exercise. In this case, you must set more realistic
goals.
If you really want to exercise regularly for the rest of your life,
you need to start working from the inside out. As you begin to exercise
for the inner rewards of the activity itself, you will find yourself
going to the gym because you want to, not because you have to.
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