Make exercise a priority.
“The number one reason people give for not exercising is time,” Dr. Heinrich said, and the only reliable way to find time is to prioritize it. “You have to make the decision to fit exercise into your day, it won’t just magically happen.”
Ms. Johnston used to try to fit exercise into her life by doing things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, “but that never convinced me or gave me any validation that I was doing anything meaningful,” she said. “Giving exercise a different place in my life was motivating.”
If you think the exercise is optional, you give yourself permission to skip it. Instead, try to think of it as an essential part of your job, said Brad Stulberg, author of “The practice of grounding” and a frequent writer on human performance. “Whether you’re a parent, businessman, doctor, writer, artist, lawyer, or educator, exercise will make you better at what you do,” he said. “It will help you focus, stay calm and collected, and improve your energy.”
Be flexible.
Making exercise a priority doesn’t mean you need a rigid schedule. TO study Dr. Milkman and colleagues published in 2020 that giving yourself flexibility in reaching your goals could increase your chances of success. The researchers studied more than 2,500 Google employees and randomly assigned some of them to be paid to go to the company gym for a period of time that they had identified in advance as the most manageable, while others could choose to go anytime.
The researchers hoped that committing to specific times would help people form stronger habits, said lead author John Beshears, a behavioral economist at Harvard Business School. Instead, people who had been given flexibility ended up going more often after the payments ended. When the group on the rigid schedule missed their planned workout, they didn’t go at all, while the group that had practiced finding the time continued to do so, Dr. Milkman said.
Get some support.
“The best physical motivator is a friend. They hold you accountable for showing up and support you when you don’t,” Stulberg said.
