How to Stay Motivated to exercise with a Busy Schedule

craftedbyiron
Apr 13
4 min read

Learn practical tips and strategies to keep your motivation high and make exercise a consistent part of your routine, even with a busy lifestyle.

A well-equipped home gym featuring a variety of cardio machines, including stationary bikes and an elliptical, ready for a convenient workout session.

This is a new blog for me. In this blog, I would like to share the lessons I have learned along the way. I have trained people for many years for free. Unfortunately, having a business comes with expenses that make it impossible to continue training that way. There is nothing better than seeing the look on your client's faces when they have achieved a long-awaited goal. Being able to help others is my "why." If we are not trying to make a difference in the world than what are we doing?

In Montana, it takes far too long for spring to arrive. Mother Nature teases us with a few warm days only to have it snow again. I was born and raised in Montana, and I have been told continuously that I will "get used" to it. I wanted to believe it, but I have come to terms with the fact that it is not true. At least for me. The truth is... spring, and summer cannot come fast enough, and both seasons could stand to be longer. Diminished sunshine and less Vitamin D from the sun isn't good for anyone.

I was motivated to write this post because many of my clients are struggling with lack of motivation right now. Winter darkness can cause low energy levels. Thankfully, spring is on the way, but our schedules are still busy.

In order to successfully navigate the landmine of activities in our life we must decide if our health and fitness goals are important. Let me explain. I recently had a conversation with a friend. We were visiting and talking about our future plans and dreams at the time. For as long as I have known him, he has wanted his own business. Life happened, his frustration grew, and along the way he had come to terms with the fact that his dream was no longer going to happen.

I explained to him that I had recently just asked myself three questions and the answers to the questions had blown my mind. So, I asked him the same questions, which are listed below.

Why do you want to achieve this goal
What is holding you back?
What would you have to do or give up in your life to make it happen?

There is no magic answer to these questions, but it made us both stop and think. So often there are things that we do because we feel our dream are out of reach. We buy things. We do things that cause us to go in the wrong direction. If we just did a little refocusing, would our dreams be possible?

Our dreams are real, or they would not have crossed our mind. Our "why" gets us out of bed in the morning and pushes us towards our success. Once we understand what our "why" is it can ignite the passion we need to reach our goals. This is true whether our goals are associated with a business, fitness, family, or overall health. Fundamentally, we have to take care of ourselves so we can help others. We have to be able to keep promises to ourselves to keep promises to others.

I am a big fan of motivational workout music. I have a high level of confidence, but the lyrics remind you how important mindset is to our overall success in life. I am going to plug my two favorite ones on Spotify 'Most People (Motivational Speech) by Fearless Motivation and 'Beast Mode-motivation for sports GYM and body building'. Both playlists have made a big difference in my mindset and my success in life.

A strong mindset leads to a strong commitment to what is important in life. Time is finite. You can't make more of it. What is the famous quote from Arnold Schwartzenegger "Sleep faster." Fitness has been important to me my whole adult life. I have never had enough time. In order to navigate my work, family, and educational responsibilities I chose to sleep less. It is not for everyone, but there is something special about the morning before the world wakes up. The world belongs to me. The phone is not ringing, everyone is asleep. Frankly, my dogs are too tired to get up. It is peaceful. My time. Working out early is my answer to a crazy schedule.

I want to end this post with some other ideas that can help motivate you to exercise after a long day of work, family and whatever else fills your time.

Get dressed at the office or bring your workout bag with you to work so you can go directly to the gym. If you are unable to do this, put your workout bag in the first place you look when you walk in the door of your house to remind you that it is gym time.
Schedule your workouts and do not give yourself permission to cancel them.
Workout with a friend. It makes you accountable and can be more fun.
Instead of cancelling your workout when you do not feel like it, commit to working out for 15 minutes. We all have times we feel like we are too tired to go to the gym. If you commit to going to the gym for 15 minutes, you will most likely finish your workout because you are at the gym.
Once you set a goal, visualize what it will look like or feel like when you achieve your goal.
Try not to "make yourself" do a workout you hate. Find a workout that you like to do. There are so many ways to get in and stay in shape. You should never center your workout around something you hate.