How to not skip Gym or Workout

You are most likely reading this because you are fed up of just missing your new years resolution time and again or realized that saying “you don’t have time to workout” might just be an excuse or you might just be going through a hard phase in life and just need an area of focus to stay away from diversions as much as possible. What ever might be the reason, good thing is that you are seriously pursuing the thought of working out regularly, which itself is a half battle won. Now you just need a nudge (external or internal) to ensure you are taking steps to do it regularly.

Here are some simple but highly effective ways to make sure you are not skipping Gym/workout. Now dont take it easy by reading the word “simple”, it sure is, but it definitely needs fair amount of commitment to repeat no matter how boarding, mundane or unrealistic it may sound.

1. Manifestation – Yes ! you read it right. Manifestation has been a age old technique right from amateur gym goer to competitive body builder. But sadly this is not been spoken of enough. We as a species have forgotten our roots of being hunter gatherers where even having food on regular basis had to be a manifestation. But the fact is it is our innate nature to manifest, but sadly its more skewed towards negative manifestation than positive, which becomes a habit and ultimately becomes our KARMA. So this is something that you already have been doing, like manifesting excuses of not going to Gym or working out; now you need to just shift your manifestation from negative to positive i.e. closing your eyes before you sleep and repeating in your imagination the exact thing you want to do in present tense until you go to sleep, by exact I mean as specific as possible and at the same time making it simple and realistic. EX – ” I am working out from 7-8 AM” or ” Ishan and I are going to GYM at 5 PM”
2. Making it as easy as possible – Now you might say “working out is never easy”, which is absolutely true, else it would defy the purpose. But by making it easy mean making the process of starting your workout as easy as possible so that you make as less excuses as possible, resulting in a very high possibility of you able to stick to the schedule. For example, you might have taken up the membership of best Gym in town with steam, sauna and everything else, but if that gym is more than 30-40 mins away from your home or office your brain will only calculate the wastage or travel in process and end you convincing you its might not be worth it. Rather choose a standard gym with 10-15 mins drive or preferably walkable from your vicinity, your chances of skipping the gym will drastically reduce. And on a very hectic day where even 15 mins drive might sound very long, just grab the most in expensive option of skipping rope for an amazing 20-30 mins quick cardio session. As I said keep it simple and easily accessible .
3. Guilt! Punish! Forgive! – Let us say you missed your stride of 5 or 10 days of workout by 1 day, what ever might be the reason your first emotional thought should be the sheer feeling of guilt of missing it now don’t just feel guilty because your brain might trick you to do it again the next day, rather accompany that feeling with a small be memorable punishment like, restraining yourself of 1 thing that you like doing daily , it could be as simple as skipping your tea time, letting you take 1 less social media break or might be even sleeping 1 hour less(presuming you are sleeping at least 7 hours on average). Now the 3rd step might seem very silly but is very crucial, as this will ensure you are not just ending up punishing yourself every time and making it a negative reinforcement where eventually you end up quitting completely, rather appreciating yourself for completing the punishment and converting guilt of skipping to sense of achievement, which in turn will make your integrity strong and boost you morally.
4. Share even your small achievements with proud – There are multiple ways to do it, easiest is to have a gym buddy where both can share an appreciate even a slight increase in weight you lift or repetitions in your set. Another way could be just sharing with your family and friends about hitting new PR at gym no matter if its just 1 pound increase to previous one #ProgressiveOverloadRules or even sharing your discovery of new vein popping up in your body which you never explored. And with many other ways to share now via social media it has become trend now, but important thing is that you are genuine with your achievement; as the motive was not to brag about it but to make yourself accountable in front of others, minimizing your chances of missing your workouts.
5. Just be in the GAME – It is really important to realize the fact that there are always ups and downs, highs and lows and there will be time in your life where you will feel nothing is changing physically and mentally, no matter how regular you are. That time just STOP, THINK and REPEAT, i.e. stop to reflect why you feeling so, most likely the root cause is something else and quitting workout is the easiest thing to sacrifice as obviously no one loves working out. But continue to believe in the process, do minute changes in your regime and just start over. Because result is inevitable if you are consistent. Trust me your results are waiting more eagerly for you than you waiting for results and only way to reach them is to keep doing your KARMA.

Congratulation of reading through the article as this is a solid proof that your are definitely serious about changing your life. I would love to hear your stories in the comments below about how you have not skipped your workout or Gym today 🙂