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A Counterintuitive Strategy for Building a Daily Exercise Habit
For the past three months, I’ve been focusing a great deal of energy on building a daily exercise habit. Unless you’re new to the world of personal development, I don’t need to tell you why I’m doing this. The potential upside is huge: Lost weight. More energy. Higher confidence and self-esteem. Stable mental health. Improved ability to do exciting physical activities. There’s a lot at stake here.
And as someone who’s been overweight for years, this one elusive habit could fundamentally improve my life in a number of ways.
Yet, like a lot of folks, I’ve tried this before. I’ve made overambitious New Year’s resolutions, midyear “get back on track” resolutions, and spur-of-the-moment “I’m going to change my life right now” resolutions.
In my attempts to make exercise palatable and consistent, I’ve burned through gym memberships, home exercise equipment, and online workout video subscriptions. I’ve pored over blogs and books and courses. I’ve cycled through phases of inspiration and excitement and action, only to fall back into burnout, self-criticism, and lethargy.
Basically, my success to this point has been what you might call laughably lackluster. I’ve fallen off the wagon more times than you could count on 20 hands.