Although most of us desire fitness and good health, it's by far the most challenging goal to commit to. The will to succeed drops as soon as it's time to hit the gym or eat salad, and instead we opt for something less beneficial, something easier, almost anything else except the thing that we should be doing or having. But if fitness and good health are key to a long life and accomplishing other goals, why is our motivation to achieve it so low?

you just have to get up and do it ... there's no magic formula

As we discussed in Understanding Motivation, each of us has inherent needs and none of them are to be toned and hot. Ultimate fitness probably classifies as an implicit need, affected by upbringing and environment, which would be why we often see siblings and couples who are as fit or unfit as each other.

In terms of it being an intrinsically or extrinsically motivated activity, that depends on the individual, their fitness level and the healthy activity being undertaken. For example, if you're severely unfit, have been told by your doctor to start exercising and decided to take up squash despite your hand-eye coordination being far from perfect, the next time squash is scheduled you won't be in the mood and will eventually stop doing it. And this is where we fail.

If you don't enjoy something, change it. Try new things. Look to social media and follow similar journeys for ideas and daily inspiration. You might be surprised how motivating it is to see someone at a similar fitness level hitting the elliptical every morning. More to the point, when it comes to things you don't love or don't love yet, you just have to get up and do it. Set a time and commit to it. It's part self-control, part habit formation. Once it's a habit and you're in better shape physically and mentally, exercise will be a leisure activity you enjoy, the reward being the exercise itself as dopamine is released. But you have to reach that point by forcing yourself to show up. There's no magic formula.

Rarely is a new fitness regime intrinsically motivated, so there are really only three things you can do if you aren't excited by the thought of sweat, tears and unanswered cravings:

• Resist your internal dialog, accept that you'll never be over-enthusiastic and just do it. Order that salad. Show up and do your best at training.


• Reward yourself. If exercising and eating healthily is extrinsically motivated, do something nice for yourself each day you eat well and get in enough activity.


• Know that if you repeat point 1 above enough times, you'll come to enjoy it.