From Negativity to Determination: Changing Your Mindset
Having the determination and willingness to stay committed to an exercise program isn’t easy. How successful you are at staying consistent can depend on a number of factors . Some of these factors are fully in your control, while other factors may be completely out of your control.
However, it is important to not let the uncontrollable factors derail you from reaching your fitness goals. The classic mental mindset of individuals needing to improve their physical health, is oftentimes associated with very negative thoughts and emotions. In psychology, this is known as “neuroticism”. Classic examples of neuroticism are those who walk in to the gym and say things like:
“This workout sucks!”
“There’s no way I’ll ever be able to stick with this program, I’m too lazy.”
“I have no idea what I’m doing so why bother?”
By thinking with this type of mindset, your self-confidence is destined to go straight down the drain. Lacking self-confidence may lead to becoming overly critical of yourself in regards to your physical health, which may limit the effectiveness of your workouts. In other words, without self-confidence, your ability to reach your fitness goal(s) (assuming you made realistic goals when you started your program) is slim to none. So the question is: How do you get rid of this negative mindset and defeat neuroticism for good?
Let’s break it down into steps.
Step 1: Gain clarity (Who am I?)
In order to be able to change your way of thinking into a more positive and determined mindset, you must first assess what you value most in life. Examples of life values include:
Friends and family
Helping and serving others
Sports
Music
Traveling
Your career
Nature/being outdoors
By thinking about your personal values, you gain a better sense of how improving your physical health benefits and enhances your values. As an example, let’s say you greatly value your career. It doesn’t matter how physically active or sedentary your job may be, improving your physical health will do wonders for maintaining energy throughout the day. Having more physical energy throughout the day will inevitably enhance your daily productivity as well.
This leads us directly into step 2.
Step 2: Figure out why it is necessary (not optional)
After you gained clarity on who you are and what you value, figure out why improving your physical health is necessary. Examples of necessary reasons include:
Reducing or reversing current chronic health conditions
Preventing future chronic health conditions
Injury rehabilitation or prevention
Now think about how these reasons are correlated to your values from step 1. For instance, let’s say you are someone who has never exercised regularly but greatly values time with friends and family. Then, at a doctors appointment, you find out you have hypertension. If you don’t take this hypertension diagnosis as a necessary reason to start exercising more, then you may be at risk for developing even more serious conditions in the future. This could potentially put limits on what you can and can’t do with your friends and family, which I am guessing would not make you feel very good.
In some cases, these first two steps might already be enough to gain the motivation that was previously missing or lacking. However, sometimes steps 1 and 2 still aren’t quite enough.
This is where step 3 comes in.
Step 3: Visualize the future you wish to create
Think of this as the step that puts it all together. Now that you are clear on what you value and why it is necessary to improve your physical health, it is time to visualize your future. To do this, fill in these blanks:
“Through better physical health, I will be able to handle ________ more effectively”
“When I’m in better physical condition, I will feel better while doing ________”
“Getting in better physical condition will give me the chance to finally achieve _______”
Be sure to write your answers down on paper. This makes you more accountable for following through than if it remains in your head. This is the step where you begin to feel excited about the future you and that negative mindset flips to one of pure determination!
Final Word
It is essential to remember not to rush through the three steps. All three steps must be taken seriously, meaning the more time you dedicate to thinking through each step, the more effective they become. If you complete the three steps and you feel like you need more, repeat step 1 again. Dig deeper into your core values until you identify even more compelling reasons to make changes.