Have you ever said, “I’ll do my workout tomorrow” and when tomorrow does arrive you’re just sitting around or doing something else completely different?
At the end of the day, we all procrastinate, and it takes more than just motivation to get us to do the things we know we should be doing.
Recently, I received a call from one of my friends who asked me to be his training partner.
I won’t reveal his name, so for the sake of privacy we’ll call him Dave.
He was very keen on getting his body back in shape again, but he didn’t have the motivation.
He said he needed someone to push him because he would never be able to do it himself.
I thought about it for a minute and said I’d meet him outside the gym at 2pm on Saturday.
He told me he wasn’t working that day, so it would be a good day to get him started with his workout.
The next day when I went to the gym he wasn’t there, so I phoned him. He answered and said he was tired and didn’t get much sleep the night before.
So I told him I was going to the gym again tomorrow, and if he really wanted me to train with him to meet me there at 2pm.
This time he said he would not let me down and would make sure to go to bed early and be ready
for the gym by 2pm the next day.
The next day arrives, and he’s not there. He let himself down again. Not me. I’ll always turn up for the gym because I love working out.
This time I don’t bother calling him and just get on with my usual workout. There is really no point because he’ll probably just keep making excuse after excuse.
Why would anybody put up with that?
Most of us run into people just like Dave. When they plan to do something with you, they don’t show up.
I’ve done it myself, and it’s not something I’m proud of.
We all procrastinate and not just when it comes to exercise. It applies to all kinds of situations in life.
Procrastination and Exercise
You might plan to wake up at 7am 5 days a week. Your alarm goes off at that time the next day, but you fail to get out of bed and get your day started.
Or, you get up Saturday morning, go to the bathroom, take a shower then have breakfast.
You then notice your phone isn’t fully charged, so you plug it in, and turn on the TV until your phone is fully charged.
You might watch for an hour, and then when there’s nothing else to watch, you go on Facebook for a while. Chat to your mates for a while and before you know it half the day is gone. At that point, your just not bothered to go to the gym.
I do it, you do it, WE ALL DO IT!!
Procrastination is, unfortunately universal!
Heck, I even procrastinated before forcing myself to write this blog
post.
Procrastination just makes us feel ashamed of ourselves and continues to nag in the back of our minds, and we can’t enjoy what we are doing.
So why do people procrastinate?
I think the reason people procrastinate is because they have nothing at stake. Most of us just want instant gratification.
So instead of doing what’s really important we do all the fun stuff instead. If you want to lose weight and get the body of your dreams, for example, you need to set priorities in your life and take action on them.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to work on yourself and live a fulfilling lifestyle.
So what’s the solution for I’ll do it tomorrow?
I recently read an article by Tim Ferrris (author of the Four-Hour Body) and he talks about a web service called “STICKK”.
You go to this website and form a committed contract to help you accomplish specific goals you set for yourself, big or small. And if you fail to reach that goal your money gets donated to a charity that you absolutely hate.
This is a great way to motivate yourself to workout and take action.
If you don’t like the idea of using STICKK, you can give a trusted friend €50 or more and tell them what you want to do but that you have been procrastinating.
If you don’t achieve your goal, they get to keep that €50 and do whatever they want with it. If you do achieve your goal you get your money back.
This is a great way to beat procrastination!
So to get started
All you have to do is choose a simple goal that you want to accomplish.
Then give 50 euro to your mate or commit to donating it to a charity you hate if you don’t reach your goal in a certain amount of time.
Whatever you do, don’t set huge goals for yourself, like “I will get a body like The Rock in The New Hercules movie”. That’s really putting the cart before the horse!
Make sure your goals are realistic and achievable.
The goal I set for myself right now is to go to the gym five days a week for the next twelve weeks and to push myself hard. If I fail to do this, I give my gym buddy €300.
I’m doing pretty well so far, and I have no intention of quitting and would hate to lose €300.
My suggestion is to set realistic goals, something like “I will lose 2lbs in the next two weeks” or set a smaller goal.
Your main focus right now is to get yourself to do something. Do this, and you will be way ahead of most people, and will accomplish your fitness goals as well as improve the quality of your life. I hope you learned something from this article.
Please leave your comments below, as well as what you plan to accomplish in the next few weeks.
Now to help you beat procrastination, click those share buttons and tell all your friends about this great way of overcoming procrastination.
