13 Tips To Motivate Others And Find Success In Fitness!

With all the New Year's Resolutions that will be made over the next little while, motivation is something that's likely to be at an all-time high. Here are 13 tips to help you get there and keep going!

With all the New Year's Resolutions that will be made over the next little while, motivation is something that's likely to be at an all-time high.

First day into the new year, people everywhere are stepping into the gym, eager to get going with their workout programs. They have a goal, they have a plan, and this year, they are actually going to stick with it. Then comes February and if you walk into the gym, you're lucky to find half of those people still going at it hard.

Motivation is something that wanes quickly, particularly if you haven't made regular exercise and following a healthy eating plan a habit before. Changing bad habits, particularly when they are related to unhealthy eating and not enough exercise is very, very hard. So hard that most people throw in the towel at some point or another.

But, that doesn't have to be you this year, provided you keep your motivation high. Two great ways to keep those motivational levels up there are first, identifying someone who can help 'feed' you more motivation—a mentor of sorts.

Identifying Someone Who Can Help Keep You Motivated Is A Great Way To Stick To Your Goals.
Enlarge Click Image To Enlarge.
Identifying Someone Who Can Help Keep You
Motivated Is A Great Way To Stick To Your Goals.

On the flip side of the coin, if you're someone who is dedicated to a proper diet and workout program regardless of the time of year, then you might want to consider helping to motivate someone else. It can be highly rewarding when you are the person who is helping someone else reach their health and fitness goals, especially if at one point you were someone who struggled.

Here are some of the top tips for how you can go about motivating someone else. And even if you don't fall into that second group of people, don't think you can't work on motivating others while trying to keep up motivation for yourself. Many times if you are actually responsible for helping others along, you'll hold yourself more accountable as well.

1. Watch Your Form In The Gym

The first thing to do to help motivate others is to be sure you're watching your form in the gym. Since part of motivation is leading by example, you want to be sure you're setting the right example for others who may be watching you out of the corner of their eye during their workouts.

If they are hoping to obtain a body similar to yours, you want to be modeling the best techniques for the exercises, along with a good work habit. When they see this it will then serve to motivate them in the right direction.

2. Talk About Your Own Goals

Next up, if you're talking with someone who is just getting into fitness and eating healthfully, it may not hurt to talk about your own goals with them, while discussing the goals they have set for themselves.

This will help demonstrate to them that setting goals is the best way to go about obtaining success and they will be more likely to use proper goal setting procedures in the future.

3. Invite Others To Join You At The Gym

On the flip side, if you know someone who has mentioned getting started on a workout plan but has yet to set foot in the gym, ask them to come with you one day.

For those who are new to working out, the gym can be a very intimidating place, so you want to be really sure that this is not what's impacting their lack of presence.

Invite Others To Come Work Out With You.
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Invite Others To Come Work Out With You.

By inviting them with you, they will feel more comfortable having you by their side, and then you can show them effective workout techniques to get them started on the right foot.

4. Reinforce Good Behavior

Another thing you'll want to be sure to do when you're trying to motivate others is to really focus on reinforcing good behavior. Positive feedback can be a very positive weapon when used correctly, so make sure they know you are taking notice of their good efforts and accomplishments.

By reinforcing the things they are doing right, you will help instill good habits in them, which will carry over and translate to more results in the future.

5. Ask Others For Opinions

Motivating others can also take the form of asking for their opinion. Many times when people are simply around others who are highly interested in health and fitness will find their own interest increases, so be sure to ask them for their thoughts and opinions on various health and fitness related topics.

Not only will this likely get them showing more interest in working out, but it will also make them feel good knowing that you value their thoughts and opinions.

6. Find Out What Excites Them And Build On That

motivation. If you sense that someone you know is less than motivated lately, try and help them find an activity that they can do that they will naturally enjoy, thus boosting their motivation levels in the process.

Anytime someone is asked to do something they dislike motivation will be low, so you're already working an uphill battle if this is the case.

Try And Help Them Find An Activity That They Will Naturally Enjoy
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Try And Help Them Find An Activity
That They Will Naturally Enjoy.

7. Compliment Them On Their Progress

Many individuals who are new to exercise will not fully commend themselves for their hard work, so do it for them. That might open their eyes and get them to see just how much progress they really have made.

Recognizing accomplishments is critical for increasing levels of self-efficacy in yourself, so taking the time to provide compliments on what they have done can help out considerably.

This will help further increase their confidence that they can keep achieving good results with their program and motivate them to work harder.

8. Inquire About Their Own Training

Sometimes as fitness enthusiasts we tend to get very caught up in our own training, which is good, but when trying to motivate others you want to be sure you're taking an interest in what they're doing too.

By including them this way they will feel like they are part of the whole fitness culture and will start identifying themselves this way.

Take An Interest In Their Training
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Take An Interest In Their Training.

When someone's viewpoint of themselves changes from being new to fitness to being someone who knows what they are doing and is a regular participant, this in itself can also boost motivational levels. Having a comfort with understanding how to workout and being able to navigate around the gym will be vital to ongoing success.

9. Help Them Deal With Set-Backs

Almost everyone at some point will deal with a set-back. This is natural and a normal part of the process of working towards your fitness goals.

By helping someone else deal with set-backs and reminding them that it's only temporary and they are in control to change things, you will help motivate them to move in the forwards direction again, so they can start seeing results.

You Will Help Motivate Them To Move In The Forwards Direction Again
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You Will Help Motivate Them To Move
In The Forwards Direction Again.
10. Get Them Involved In A Contest

A surefire strategy to spark up some motivation in not only others, but yourself as well is to get involved in some sort of contest.

Find a common goal that both of you feel comfortable working towards, be sure to scale the goal accordingly for your own individual situations (for example, if the goal is muscle building, realize females build muscle at half the rate of males, so a male and female should not have the same goals of adding ten pounds of muscle first), and then set a reward for whomever obtains the goal first.

Competition is a huge motivation for many people, so put this factor to work for you.

11. Join An Event Together

Another good option for boosting motivation levels is joining an event together. This could be such things as a marathon race, a figure or bodybuilding competition, or a local triathlon.

When the other person sees you training hard, that will boost their motivation and make them work harder to prepare themselves.

12. Answer Their Questions With Patience

While it can get a little frustrating sometimes for someone who knows a great deal about fitness and diet information, trying to answer any questions thrown at you by someone new to fitness is important.

While the question may seem senseless to you, it's important to remember that they are really just learning and you were probably at one time in their shoes as well.

Take The Time To Answer Their Questions
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Take The Time To Answer Their Questions.

13. Use Positive Language

Finally, when trying to motivate someone be sure you're using positive language yourself. Staying upbeat and always having an energized focus can really impact others around you.

Just as they say, "a smile is contagious", so is a positive and energetic attitude when it comes to the gym. Being 'psyched' up for a workout can make a huge difference in the overall results of that workout, so the better you can psych yourself up, the better the chances others around you will take notice and feel more pumped to get going too.

Conclusion

So, keep these points in mind in the coming new year when trying to motivate others. New Year's resolutions are going to be everywhere so use this as an opportunity to help get others more involved with their own fitness goals so they can see all the great benefits working out has to offer.