101 Ways To Motivate Yourself

I focus on the psychology of fitness and success because I believe that if you understand 'why' you want to do something the 'how' part becomes easy. I didn't get fit by reading about how to perform a sit-up. I got fit because something motivated me to want to learn how to perform every sit-up God made.

Learning what uniquely motivates you is what will make you successful in your weight loss or weight gain journey. Here are 101 strategies that I have seriously used in my years in training.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Author, Maria Kang: 'Learning What Uniquely Motivates You Is What Will
Make You Successful In Your Weight Loss Or Weight Gain Journey.'

101 Motivation Strategies

1. Write down your goals.
2. Create a fitness action plan.
3. Devise a desirable reward.
4. Set a completion date.
5. Enter a competition.
6. Enter a competition amongst your friends.
7. Plaster motivational quotes all over your house.
8. Write "Every Day is a New Battle" on your bathroom mirror.
9. Post your favorite fitness role model on your refrigerator.
10. Post your favorite fat picture on your refrigerator.
11. Type "Your Character is your Destiny" on your screen saver.
12. Type "Get off your Butt" on your screen saver.
13. Practice core strength by using a stability ball for a chair.
14. Rollover and do some crunches in-between emails on your stability ball chair.
15. Buy a nice wardrobe that will fit you in two months.
16. Donate all your fat clothes to Salvation Army.
17. Moderate your strict eating with a fat meal once a week.
18. When eating your fat meal, look at the body type of other people who eat fat meals daily.
19. Buy some fitness magazines.
20. Read some "how to" fitness articles.
21. Join a fitness blog.
22. Read transformation stories.
23. Pray and thank God for the amount of weight you've already lost.
24. Make a supportive fitness group.
25. Hang around fit friends.
26. Surround yourself with people and things that promote a healthy lifestyle.
27. Find a running partner.
28. Inspire your own partner to run with you.
29. Create fitness goals with your partner.
30. Make a workout and diet log.
31. Personalize your journal by adding inspirational quotes and pictures.
32. Document your progress: weight, body fat, and blood pressure.
33. Attend a bodybuilding/fitness show.
34. Talk to competitors and pros that live for fitness.
35. Ask your role models what motivates them.
36. Take a chance and email your role model off their web site.
37. Take a supplement for physical gains as well as a mental 'placebo' effect.
38. Drink some coffee.
39. Drink more coffee.
40. Date someone more fit than you.
41. Date someone who inspires you.
42. Date someone you want to look really good naked for.
43. Shave your body so you can see all your muscles.
44. Tan your body so you can see all the lines and contours of your muscles.
45. Tan your body at the beach so that people with really nice bodies can inspire you.
46. Hire a trainer.
47. Become a trainer.
48. Humble a trainer by knowing more stuff than him/her.
49. Look like a trainer.
50. Buy new athletic shoes.
51. Buy a new workout outfit.
52. Buy clean, new, and comfortable socks.
53. Wear really bright colors to the gym.
54. Take a group exercise class.
55. Take a spinning class for really intense cardio.
56. Take Yoga or Pilates class for variety and core strength.
57. Drink an energy drink.
58. Plan a vacation where you have to wear a swimsuit.
59. Read Lance Armstrong's biography.
60. Envision your workout during your warm-up.
61. Focus on the workout, one set at a time.
62. Beat yourself up with weights for even getting de-motivated.
63. Conquer your negative thoughts by pushing your body into painful consciousness.
64. Experiment on how much you can make yourself sweat.
65. Make it a goal to be the fittest person in the weight room - or any room for that matter.
66. Test your max on push-ups and pull-ups.
67. Post the Krispy Kreme's calendar on your wall.
68. Post Monica Brant's calendar on your wall.
69. Watch Ronnie Coleman videos.
70. Read articles by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
71. Buy a home exercise bike or treadmill.
72. Become the inspiration amongst your friends.
73. Help someone who is very overweight or wants to gain muscle.
74. Visit my web site: http://www.mariakang.com/.
75. Place your alarm clock across your bedroom so that you have to get up to turn it off in the morning.
76. Place your athletic shoes right next to your alarm clock.
77. Place a quote right next to your alarm clock that says: "Today you are closer to the person you were meant to become."
78. Alarm your cell phone to give you daily reminders to eat, work out, and give gratitude.
79. Volunteer your time with people who don't have full function of their bodies.
80. Volunteer your passion for fitness at a YMCA.
81. Look up new, healthy recipes to cook.
82. Search for new, healthy restaurants to eat at.
83. Observe the body type of the people at restaurants you shouldn't eat at.
84. Read one of Mike Mahler's Aggressive Strength Training Articles on Bodybuilding.com.
85. Learn a new exercise technique like Kettlebell training.
86. Turn off your TV and run.
87. Buy a new MP3 player or iPod and put some high energy workout songs on it.
88. Buy new workout devices like a heart rate monitor or pedometer.
89. Work out at a different gym.
90. Work out at a different time of day.
91. Work out using all new exercises.
92. Vary your cardio by incorporating High Intensity Training.
93. Say a prayer for power right before you train.
94. Say a prayer for performance right before your set.
95. Say a prayer for pain during your set.
96. Say a prayer for persistence after your set.
97. Say a prayer for positive action after you train.
98. Read articles on Bodybuilding.com.
99. Shop for supplements, videos, and books on Bodybuilding.com.
100. Get passionate enough to write an article for Bodybuilding.com.
101. You know what motivates you. Quit reading and make it happen.