I Need Motivation Theories

Some years ago the company I was at opened a fitness and exercise center in one of the buildings. About nine months after it opened and the initial rush subsided, I decided to check the place out and sign up to use it. It was free to employees, so there was no excuse for not using it. I had intended to sign up right away but it had always seemed too busy, as the one treadmill seemed to always be in use by our fellow employee who was also a marathoner.

I met with Mary of the staff and was given an application to fill out. I checked the normal boxes that most people would check when joining a health club: I want to lose weight, get in shape, and build muscles. Then I came up to the following question:

Check the reasons why you are not able to exercise:

- Too busy of a schedule - Access to a fitness facility is not convenient - Already exhausted at the end of the day - Not enough time in the day - Too many important items already on my schedule

As my memory has slowed faded over the years those are not likely the exact reasons that were listed. As I read through each reason I realized it was not a reason, but an excuse. Not enough time in the day? I didn’t need to spend two hours last night watching that TV show with way too many commercials. Too tired at the end of day? We all are tired at the end of the day. Too busy of a schedule? Not if I count the breaks, chit-chat with other employees, running to the store several times a week because I didn’t plan my trip.

I ended up not checking any of the reasons and wrote in at the bottom: I am not able to exercise because I don’t take the time and energy to do so. In other words, too much work, too much planning, too much other stuff to give up to exercise.

Sound like one of your typical excuse? My favorite is "I don’t feel like doing that". Be it working on an important project at work, making that phone call, paying bills, cleaning the garage, we can always find an excuse to not do it now. We are very good at convincing ourselves to put something off until later, even though we know that we will be the ones doing it later, angry at ourselves for putting it off till the last minute!

When we argue to ourselves it is easy to lose because we also consider that we have won. Clean the garage or watch the ball game? Let me see, the poker game is live on TV and the garage is going nowhere - watching the ball game wins! I win! The garage cleaning can wait for it really doesn’t lose, it just gets delayed until the next time (when there will be yet another ball game to watch - can’t they schedule these around my "clean the garage" schedule?)

So, the challenge is to realize that there are plenty of excuses, many of them superb, and it is easy to accept any one of them. You can challenge any excuse and with enough desire you can win that challenge.

As for that health club, I used it only twice in the next year. But I also started getting up earlier in the morning, laced up my running shoes, and improved both my fitness and health. What jump-started me was the application and the reasons that did not fit. Once I wrote my own reason (or excuse as I call it) I was about to change things by not accepting that I was too busy as my excuse.

Shawn is a well-known business coach who helps individuals and organizations with perfecting their motivation skills. He runs the website http://www.motivationtricks.com, where you can find tips, tricks, and techniques to help you earn more money, improve your fitness, and live a much happier and fuller life.

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