Treat Your Workouts Like a Competition

             

My Main Motivation- Treating My  Workout Like a Competition

            All my life I have been a highly competitive person. I wanted to win everything that I ever participated in, and I always wanted to be the best that I could be. As I grew up I made games out of everyday tasks and challenged myself to do it better or faster. I took pride in being part of a team because it gave me something to try to become the best at. I participated in four varsity sports in High School. All these sports were opportunities to widen my range of competition and it is in these sports that I created my foundation of my fitness. To be good at sports, you have to be in good shape. Throughout High School, getting in shape for a sport was what I used as my prime motivator to workout. After High School, I didn't have that same reason to workout and it killed my motivation.

                          

          I finally replaced that lost prime motivation when I started treating my workouts like a competition. I channeled my competitive personality into making a game out of working out, realizing that I didn't need to be competing against anybody to make use of my competitive nature. This game wasn't me comparing myself to anybody else. This game was trying to set my own high-scores. Think of it as single player mode on your favorite video game. Every time I am in a weight room, I am trying to make myself better so that I can lift more the next time I lift. I want to be better next week, than I am this week. I am never really satisfied with being static. The need to move forward is a constant, powerful, motivation in my life.

You never stay the same. You either get better or you get worse. –Jon Gruden

        What You Should Do-      

         The next time you are having troubles motivating yourself to workout, try treating it like a game. Try to be better than yourself. One thing I love to say is that everybody starts somewhere.

Things to Understand:

1.  It is okay if you can only lift the bar.
2.  It’s okay to be lifting next to someone who can lift more than you. 
3. There is no problem if you are on a treadmill next to someone in better shape than you. 
4. Nobody cares if you are in worse shape than them. 

I personally am motivated by seeing someone in terrible shape trying make themselves healthier. I'm not motivated by seeing ripped people in the gym. I know that it takes so much more effort to change than to keep doing what you already do.

In most board games, you each take turns to start. In fitness, people just start the game at different times.

If you can only lift the bar this week, maybe next week you can slap some 2.5lb weights on the ends of that bar and lift it. The key is to stay moving forward.