Short read
Physical activity can have a large number of barriers that get in the way of us doing it regularly, including not having enough time, no motivation, low energy levels, or a lack of confidence
It’s much easier to change our behaviour when we’re prepared for a situation ahead of time (proactive) rather than trying to respond at the moment, which can lead to a battle of willpower and motivation (reactive)
The first step to overcoming our barriers to activity is to identify patterns in our behaviour. For example, what situations lead to the obstacles we're facing?
Next time you skip a workout or don’t meet your activity goals for the day, take a moment to reflect on why this might have happened and how you can better prepare for this barrier in the future
Something to reflect on today: We’re more likely to be physically active if our motivations are tied to our internal values, like health, family, and independence. What’s one value you can use to help boost motivation to increase your activity?
We’re all aware of the vast number of benefits that come from being physically active. But activity is one of those behaviours with many barriers or obstacles that get in the way of regularly doing it.
These might be external barriers like insufficient time, the weather, or lack of equipment.
There could be internal barriers like no motivation, low energy levels, or a lack of confidence.
Today, we want to discuss a valuable strategy that can help us overcome our barriers to activity.
Being proactive vs reactive
When it comes to working through challenges, whether movement-related or non-movement-related, we can take two different approaches: being reactive or proactive.
If we take a reactive approach, it means we manage the challenge in the moment. If we take a proactive approach, it means we prepare for the challenge ahead of time.
Here’s an example of how these two approaches might play out.
Imagine that you schedule an activity session three times a week at 5 pm. But each day, when 5 pm rolls around, you find you have no energy or motivation to be active.
Throughout the day, you've added several tasks to your to-do list, and you justify that your time would be better spent working through these instead of completing your activity session.
A reactive approach
Try to push through this lack of energy and motivation and drag yourself through a workout. Some days, this works, and you do the activity session, but other days, you pass and continue working through your to-do list.
A proactive approach
Reschedule your workout to a different time when you have more energy and other tasks won’t be prioritised. For some, this might be first thing in the morning.
In this way, the proactive approach means you avoid having to face the barrier of a lack of energy or motivation in the first place.
Identifying patterns
As with our eating behaviour, the first step to learning to overcome barriers is identifying patterns in our behaviour. This means working out what challenges prevent us from being active and when these occur.
Journalling is a great tool to help identify these trends. Doing this in the moment rather than retrospectively can be much easier. So, next time you skip a workout or don’t meet your daily activity goals, take a moment to reflect on why this might have happened.
For example, do you always skip your activity session when you schedule it at night? Or perhaps you skip the more challenging workouts you don’t enjoy?
Determine a proactive response
Once you’ve identified trends in your behaviour patterns, think about a proactive way to avoid that challenge in the first place.
Here are some examples:
It’s much easier to change our behaviour when we’ve prepared for a situation ahead of time rather than trying to respond in the moment, which can lead to a battle between willpower and motivation.
Also, remember it’s ok to skip a workout or not feel motivated to be active sometimes. This isn’t about identifying times when we’ve done something ‘wrong’ or blaming ourselves for not sticking to our plan.
Instead, it’s about looking for ways to restructure our routine to make healthy behaviours (like physical activity) easier.
Something to reflect on today
We’re more likely to be active if our motivations are tied to our internal values, like health, family, and independence. What’s one value you can use to help boost motivation to be active?
Written by Robbie Puddick