You are out-of-shape. You don't like your pudgy look. Welcome to the club. Millions of people are stunned by the results of a sedentary life style.
Exercise is a prescription for health. Yet millions who can benefit from exercise, will procrastinate. Surprisingly, you don't hear much about how to get past this exercise barrier. It's like the invisible elephant in the room.
The American Psychological Association database has over 35,848 documents on exercise. Eleven mention procrastination. This is a serious omission. Exercise procrastination is an understated problem. I'll bet procrastination is the biggest barrier to getting and staying in shape.
If you want to get in shape, read on. I won't say what exercises for you to do. You may prefer walking, swimming, a team sport, working with weights, or whatever. Rather, I'll tell how to recognize procrastination and stop procrastinating on exercising.
Reasoning about Exercising
You feel excited about looking trim. You like the health benefits from exercise. Yet you miss the benefits by avoiding the effort. Perhaps you've fallen into the easy success trap.
The easy success trap befuddles millions. You see people appear on the media who went from not exercising to benefitting greatly from exercising. You may think, "It's easy. If others can do it, I can." So you buy the equipment, only to watch it gather dust.
This result is not entirely your fault. You may have bought a seductive plan for an easy, convenient, exercise solution.
Exercise hucksters make it sound like they have a foolproof exercise product. With elite wordsmith skills and crafted visual images, they create an illusion of instant success. You hear testimonials from people who smilingly claim they went from hefty sized jeans to a Hollywood style profile. You buy the hype. You think you'll have fun exercising and look trim. There is another side to this story. Testimonials by paid actors or selected volunteers are hardly the stuff you can count on. Believing in easy success, you'll may first ignore the fact that exercise takes effort. Once that thought grabs hold, you are likely to either not start exercising, or soon stop as your hope for easy fitness fizzles.
Gear up by doing an exercise benefits analysis. Here's an example:
1. Look younger;
2. Build stress tolerance;
3. Improve attention and concentration;
4. Aid cardiac functioning;
5. Protect against type two diabetes;
6. Boost the feel good chemical, endorphin;
7. Prevent osteoporosis;
8. Act as an anti-depressant;
9. Assist productivity;
10. Burn calories;
11. Develop a slimmer appearance;
12. Get in good physical condition.
Now, look at the negative downside of exercising. This may include (1) inconvenience; (2) takes effort; (3) challenging to sustain.
So what's more important, doing the work and getting the benefits of being in shape, or avoiding hassle?
Break the Exercise-Procrastination Connection
Among the different forms of procrastination, discomfort dodging procrastination is probably the most common. This is an automatic tendency to avoid what you think is unpleasant, uncomfortable, or difficult, even if the activity is highly important or necessary. For example, you like the benefits of exercising. But you'd rather watch TV, play computer games, chat with a friend, or nap.
Discomfort-dodging procrastination is like stealth. You may not see it but you feel the effects. Think about your thinking, and you can catch on to what is going on, You will likely discover the tomorrow illusion. This is the idea that you have plenty of time to get in shape. You can always exercise later. That's a lame excuse.
In facing up to your tomorrow illusion you may experience a struggle of the mind against itself. Exercising is effortful and can be uncomfortable. You get signals from your lower brain not to go. You know the long-term benefits for exercise. Your voice of reason says go. This voice of reason competes with your avoidance urges. The battle is on.
You now face a classic double agenda dilemma. You want the benefits from exercising. You want to avoid the discomfort. You can't go both ways. But you have an opportunity to compromise with yourself. You can accept that exercising is uncomfortable. That gives your primitive brain its due. Then you follow instructions from your enlightened reason.
Grind It Out
I've exercised with reasonable consistency for over 40 years. During this time I can't recall looking forward to working out. While at the gym I often think of shortening the circuit, but I don't. I don't feel thrilled when I'm finished. However, I know the evidence for the benefits of exercise and I rely on that information as a guide to action.
If I waited until I felt like working out, I'd be in poor physical shape. Instead, I do what I've suggested to others. Exercise even if you don't feel like it. Resign yourself to the reality that you can't benefit from exercising without exercising.
Grind it out. You may find that exercise is not as bad as you might first think. But even if it is, you've acted to benefit yourself. You've substituted a healthy effort stress for the finagling of primitive avoidance reasoning.
For more on overcoming exercise procrastination, see chapter 13 in The Procrastination Workbook.
Dr. Bill Knaus
