How can individuals maintain their motivation and momentum when pursuing long-term fitness goals?

Question

Dr. Mitchell Tanner, PT, DPT, CSCS · Answer

How can individuals maintain their motivation and momentum when pursuing long-term fitness goals? So long-term goals, it is totally normal to have dips in motivation, but you can minimize that by understanding the real reason why you care about your goal. So if you have a goal of losing 20 pounds, well, why is that a goal for you? Why is that important? Is it because you want to look better? Okay, well, why do you want to look better? Why is that something that you value? And continuing to ask why until you are unable to really gives you a full, robust understanding of what is the true motivation behind your goal, especially when the motivation to lose weight slows down, especially if you have dips in your progress towards that goal. You want to understand the real driving factor of why that's important to you and reflect back on that when times get tough. As far as maintaining momentum, I always recommend the never miss twice rule. So if you are working towards your goal and you're trying to eat healthier and you have a meal that is not in alignment with your goal, then you want to make sure that the next one you are back on track. Never miss twice because every moment you have a new decision to make. And so using the never miss twice rule, make sure that you don't get into a habit of getting further and further away and that you recognize your ability to change that situation in the next moment. So if you miss one workout because you're really busy, make it a super important goal of you not to miss the next one. So never missing twice helps you make sure that you don't dig yourself into a rut that gets harder to get out of. Even if there are valleys and peaks, there are smaller valleys and peaks and it's easier to maintain that forward progress.

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"How can individuals maintain their motivation and momentum when pursuing long-term fitness goals?"