How to Exercise and Stay Active Without Getting Bored

How do you exercise and stay active?

I haven’t missed a workout in over 11 years, and this is one of the most common questions I receive about fitness and exercise.

It is deceptively simple, but surprisingly nuanced.

If this is your questions, here is how I respond.

Step 1: Clarify the Question

People ask “how” questions with different intentions and objectives. My first step is always to clarify the intention of the question.

The question of “how do you exercise?” is usually seeking to get insight into one of three parts of the process:

• What to do — suggestions on activities that you can do as exercise
• How to find “motivation” — the fuel in the tank that gets you out of bed and out the door
• How to actually engage in the process — how to “put the key in the ignition and start the car, metaphorically speaking.

The quality of the answer depends on the quality of the question. Identifying the place where you’re getting stuck will help you ask a more specific question to get the answer that will support you.

Step 2: What’s Getting in Your Way?

If you’re asking how to exercise, the first question to ask yourself is

Why aren’t you?

What’s getting in your way? This relates to Step 1.

Are you stuck on how to move your body?

Do you have injuries that you believe prevent you from exercising in the way that you want?

Are you wondering how to fit it in to your schedule?

Is it something else?

What’s keeping you from exercising?

Step 3: WHY do you want to?

The how of anything starts with why.

It’s common to think of “motivation” as the reward you’ll receive, and this can certainly help “motivate” you. But it’s an elusive motivation. Instead of thinking of motivation as related to the reward, I prefer to think of it as the reason.

As Tony Robbins says, reasons come first, answers come second.

Let’s use the road trip metaphor:

The reason you want to exercise is your motivation — the fuel in your tank.
The forms of exercise are the destination.
The strategies on how to fit it in to your day are the map and the directions.

The best destination, map, and driving directions don’t do you any good if you don’t have fuel in the tank or can’t get the car started.

Similarly, no amount of advice on activities, time management, how to fit in more steps into your day, or other strategies will help you if you don’t have a strong reason — or any reason at all and can’t get yourself out the door.

I have found it helpful to have multiple reasons. This is because not all reasons will be strong at all times. Sometimes, a reason that was pulling you for a while fails to light the spark under you. The more reasons you have, the more fuel you’ll have in the tank.

Some of my reasons when I started my journey were:

• I want to live a long and good life with energy and strength. I didn’t want to be a crippled woman at the age of 70.
• I want to feel and be healthy and strong.
• I want to keep up with my nieces and nephews.

Along the way, I found other reasons to continue, as I realized:

• Exercise gives me the dopamine boost that helps with executive function and nervous system regulation.
• Exercise generally feels good. I like the endorphins.
• I like exploring new ways to live in my body and what it’s capable of doing. Especially because my mind can be unreliable at times

Find your reasons. If you need some help with this, read these 7 reasons to exercise daily.

Step 4: Find Something That Interests You

This is where we get into the “what to do.”

The best way to start exercising is to find something you enjoy doing. Make it play.

Maybe you like to be around people. In that case, find group activities or team sports. Maybe you like to be alone. In that case, find solo activities, like swimming or running.

There are so many ways you can move your body: Go for a walk. Lift weights. Swim. Practice yoga. Take up martial arts. Dance. Rock climbing. Flying trapeze. Circus arts. Basketball. CrossFit. Pilates. Jump rope. Skip down the street.

Step 5: Mix it Up

One of the crucial components of my longevity and consistency is that I mix it up. This keeps me from getting bored.

I do something every day, but it’s not always the same thing.

Find many different ways to move. Try new activities. You don’t have to do a lot, but do something.