Staying Productive in Your Fitness Journey
No matter what your age, gender, culture, or geographic location, humans around the world can benefit from pursuing fitness goals. While the correlation between fitness and increased productivity is well established, it’s important to remember that the inverse is important as well.
If you’re on or just starting a fitness regimen, it’s important to remain productive within that endeavor over time. Here are a few tips and suggestions for ways to remain productive in your fitness journey so that, as a result, you can continue to reap the productivity benefits that it offers over the long haul.
Set Reasonable Goals
The first (and arguably most important) aspect of maintaining consistency throughout your fitness efforts is to set reasonable goals. A “reasonable” goal is one that pushes you past your current abilities and challenges you to strive for more but is not so far out of reach that it adds stress and chaos to your life.
For instance, if you’re trying to get into cardiovascular shape, instead of starting out by trying to run a marathon, a good initial goal could be to work your way up to a 5K. Start by walking, then jogging/walking, and eventually only jogging. By doing so, you’re pushing your body without breaking it down.
By setting reasonable goals, you provide an encouraging benchmark that you can tangibly work towards over time.
As you set these reasonable goals, make sure to look for tools that can help you. Get a fitness tracker or even a smartwatch to help you control your workout, track your progress, and help you see when you’ve reached your goals.
Double Up During Your Fitness Activities
Another way to keep your workout routines alive and well is to double them up with other meaningful activities. For instance, listen to a podcast or practice mindfulness while you’re jogging or at the gym.
This provides an extra level of attractiveness to your fitness regimen that you can look forward to. It encourages you to partake in the activity each day in anticipation of the mental as well as physical stimulation that it provides.
Doubling up your fitness with mental activities can also be an excellent way to keep tabs on your overall mental health. By giving yourself uninterrupted periods of time to think, it can help you identify and address mental struggles if you find yourself amongst the ranks of the 47 million other U.S. adults who also wrestle with a mental illness. Fortunately, mental health concerns are covered in many health plans at this point, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to take action to address your concerns if any unsavory mental struggles are identified.
Consistent Doesn’t Mean the Same
If you want a fitness routine to last, it’s important that you recognize one essential factor: consistency does not mean doing the same exact thing. When defining consistency, Merriam Webster specifically uses the terms “agreement” and “harmony” between the parts or features of a whole. It’s the same reason the style of a room can be consistent regardless of what items are being used to decorate it.
When it comes to your workouts, it’s good to adopt this mentality as well. Always be willing to shake things up from time to time as you go along. If you find that you’re getting bored of doing the same activity every day, you can try to create a new spark of interest by looking for variations or even entirely new activities to include in your workout schedule.
For instance, look for a new exercise that you can integrate into your habitual visit to the gym. Try biking instead of running. You can even sneak in some stretches at your desk to keep your fitness goals fresh and consistent throughout the day.
Reassess Your Goals Regularly
Finally, along with keeping your actual fitness activities fresh, remember to reassess your goals from time to time as well. By regularly revisiting your workout objectives, you can ensure that two things are not taking place:
- First, that you haven’t set goals that are so lofty they’re stressing you out. If this is the case, you can calibrate by setting a newer, more attainable goal.
- Second, that your goals are still challenging you. If this isn’t happening or if you already achieved a goal, it may be time to up the ante and aim for something higher.
Both of these are important, as you want your fitness pursuits to remain challenging but enjoyable.
By reassessing your goals regularly, you can maintain a growth mindset for your fitness journey. Often used when referring to business, a growth mindset, also known as “continual learning,” is the belief that you can and will continually change and adapt to your circumstances.
Rather than accepting that their peak potential consists of who they already are, those with a growth mindset actively strive to grow no matter what situation they find themselves in.
Using Productive Fitness to Stay Productive
As long as you can stay productive throughout your fitness journey, it will provide benefits for your mind, body, and soul. However, the key ingredient to all of this is being willing to invest yourself in proactively finding solutions to keep you on track. If you can do that, you’ll be able to tap into the power of a productive fitness regimen for weeks, months, and years to come.
