As a husband, father and business owner, it is easy to ignore my own health and fitness and become overly stressed, overworked, anxious, and as a result, skip workouts and eat poorly.

However I’ve recognized that in order to take care of the top priorities in my life, I need to take care of myself.

If my own sleep, nutrition, exercise and stress are not in check, my fitness regimen and health starts to crumble and my priorities also begin to suffer.

Our society has made it normal and acceptable to put self-care last on the list of priorities.

I’m here to give you permission to take care of yourself first. Many of us put kids, family, and work ahead of ourselves, which can lead to reduced sleep, higher stress levels, depression and anxiety. When these things consume our lives and we don’t take time for self care, it can lead to a lack of motivation in our own fitness and overall health.

I’ve found the two most common factors for lack of motivation are due to:

1. Sleep quality or lack of sleep
2. Stress, which leads to anxiety and/or depression

Sleep is the foundation of health and wellness. For my clients who struggle with finding motivation to exercise, we need to evaluate sleep first. It’s simple right? If you’re tired, you likely don’t want to workout. 

If this is the case for you, your initial action steps can be easy, begin with turning off ALL screens one hour before bed. Many clients find that replacing it with a book is really beneficial. 

Next, try going to bed earlier. It can be difficult to go to bed an hour early right out of the gate. Start by going to bed ten minutes earlier than normal for a week, then 20 minutes earlier the next week, keep adding ten extra minutes per week until you’re going to bed 30-90 minutes earlier. 

Finally, once you’ve developed a consistent sleep routine, maintain the same bed-time and wake-up time. 

Next, evaluate your self care and ability to manage stress. With our busy schedules, it’s easy to check off the to-do list without scheduling time for yourself. Kids become a priority, activities and work take over, then there is no time for yourself and by the time you finish all the stuff on your list, you just don’t have time or motivation to exercise! 

I’ll remind you again! You need to take care of yourself before you can care for others! You are not selfish to focus on you. It’s quite the opposite. You’re selfless by focusing on yourself first in order to care for your family better. 

Focusing on yourself starts with scheduling time to yourself. Schedule a time in the morning to journal. Find a spot that is isolated, read for 10 minutes, pick a quote, passage or section of an inspirational or spiritual book to journal about for 10 minutes. ask yourself these questions to prompt the direction of your journaling:

1. Why does this stand out to me today?
2. How can I apply this to my day?

The goal for this exercise is to start changing your mindset by setting time aside to navigate your own emotions and any possible stressors you have in your life. When you start identifying your feelings, you can navigate through why you’re feeling unmotivated. 

Finally, establish a routine. The hardest part of a routine is starting one. It usually takes about two weeks to set a solid routine foundation. Once it’s established, your day becomes automatic even when life is hard or you don’t feel like doing something. Once waking up at 6:00 a.m. becomes your routine, you just do it, because that’s what you know. When you start working out at 5:30 p.m. everyday, it becomes a part of your day even when motivation is lacking. 

The key to setting a successful routine is starting small. Below are the three things I suggest scheduling into your day to start, and once they become routine, add one or two more.

1. Bed time, rise time
2. Journal time
3. Workout time

Often we want to start big or go big. Going big right out of the gate can feel great for a day or two, but after a few days it becomes overwhelming and that’s when most people quit. Starting small allows you to add small variations every couple of weeks to see huge success in the long term! 

THIS WEEK’S ACTION STEPS:

This week let’s take some small action steps to help work on your motivation to workout:

1. Every night this week put your screens to bed 1-hour before bed-time, replace it with your favorite book.
2. Schedule 30 minutes everyday this week to yourself. Ideally this would be time for journaling and self-reflection.
3. Schedule your workout time everyday this week. Put it in a planner, in your phone, etc.
4. Schedule a Goal Setting Session with your coach. If you’re not a client, set up a No Sweat Intro (click the link below) to find out how we can help you get motivated and keep you motivated to pursue your fitness.

Are you struggling with motivation? Book a free No Sweat Intro to see how we can help → https://msgsndr.com/widget/booking?calendar=cG0F1o7IB58d8xZGxrOo,CMDz4uSx2R7G2nBd7yl1