It should come as no surprise that lack of motivation is the #1 barrier to folks starting and maintaining a consistent fitness habit. As a personal trainer, almost every day I hear people say they would LOVE to get moving more, but just don’t have the motivation to start or keep going.
So if you’ve ever found yourself on the start-stop cycle with exercise, feeling ashamed and blaming yourself for your lack of commitment, this article is for you!
In this article, I’m going to help you shake off the idea that it’s all your fault and build up your confidence to get started and create that lifelong movement habit so you can feel and function your very best.
I’m breaking down 5 strategies to improve exercise motivation without depleting your precious willpower reserves.
Make sure you read to the end because I’ve got a bonus strategy that is essential for exercise consistency!
Table of Contents
#1. You Don’t Have a Willpower Problem

Contrary to popular belief, if you want to get moving consistently, willpower is not the way. In fact, the exact opposite is true. You have to WANT to move simply for the good feelings it brings.
This is #1 on the list because I see people fall into this trap all the time. And it makes total sense – all of the “motivational” sayings from the fitness industry are about mental toughness: no pain no gain, just do it, go big or go home…
But think about it this way… willpower is something we employ to get through intense, difficult, and dreadful circumstances. It’s a wonderfully powerful ability of the mind to cope with hard things – but by definition it’s not meant to last. Willpower is a limited resource, meant to be used for extenuating circumstances, not to tolerate day to day activities like movement.
Willpower has a place when we’re in the midst of a really tough workout or are trying to get to the finish line… but if we have to use it everyday to tolerate exercise, it won’t last long. No one wants to force themselves to do anything in the long term; we’re hard wired as humans to chase pleasure and avoid pain.
The main reason people rely on willpower for exercise is because they’re viewing exercise as a tool of punishment or a means to change their body. Rooted in the belief that their body is not good enough as it is, the person feels they have to exercise to lose weight or get in shape. Add on to that, we’re taught that we have to work as hard as we can to get results… is it any wonder you struggle with motivation?
So instead of trying to increase your willpower to endure exercise so you can lose weight, shift your focus to using movement as a tool to support your body to feel and function its best. Think about the other benefits movement provides, besides body shaping and how movement adds to your life in a positive way.
For example:
- Going for a hike in nature helps clear my head
- 5 minutes of stretching relieves aches and pains
- Dancing to music I love improves my energy
- Lifting weights keeps me strong so I can maintain my independence
My coaching client, Kathy, wanted to move more and knew it would benefit her to do so. She just couldn’t seem to get herself started. We uncovered that she had a limiting belief that exercise had to be crazy hard in order to “count”. Once she changed her mindset to focus on how movement helped her feel, even small doses of gentle activity were worthwhile and her motivation improved.
You can hear Kathy’s story on our Podcast, Power in Motion.

#2. Hold Off On Joining that 12 Week Challenge
This doesn’t mean you can’t set long term goals or challenge yourself by trying something new. Training programs can provide some helpful structure and guidance, when training for specific goals.
On the other hand, challenges are often marketed as a way to increase motivation by providing accountability, support and community….But what you usually end up with is grueling workouts, restrictive diets, pressure to perform, and competition rather than connection.
If you struggle to keep up with the exercises in the challenge, or miss a day, guilt and fear of failure take over. Feelings like that don’t motivate… at least not for long.
All too often challenges are abandoned and we’re left right back where we start.
So, before you sign up for the next challenge, ask yourself “do I need this program to help me train for something specific? Is it going to be fun and inspiring? Or am I feeling sucked in by promises that seem to good to be true?”
Instead, look for a community of like minded people who will be your biggest cheerleaders.
Community is one of the most motivating forces when it comes to long-term adherence to physical activity. But the key factor is to find a community that is truly supportive.
It doesn’t have to be a large group, if that’s not your thing. Maybe for you, community is just one person. Whoever your person, or people are, make sure that they have your back.
A supportive community:
- Cheers you on, celebrates your wins with you and encourages you when you struggle
- Misses you and checks in on you when you miss a class
- Gently encourages you to try new things and test your limits without making you feel less than if you’re at a different level
- Accepts you and your body as is.
Pro tip: Can’t find a community for your favourite activity? Create one!
#3. Supercharge Your Motivation by Finding What Moves YOU!
As I said at the beginning of this article, in order to cultivate lasting motivation, you have to WANT to move your body purely for the good feelings it brings.
That means you have to actually ENJOY the activity you’re doing.
Now, maybe that feels impossible because you absolutely hate the gym and everything that goes along with it – weights, machines, fitness classes. You’ve been there, done that and it’s just not your jam.
Well not to worry, because you don’t have to “exercise” to reap the benefits of movement!
The truth is gyms and all things fitness are made up anyway. Prior to 1950, these things didn’t even exist.
Humans are made to move…. And there’s lots of ways to move besides exercise.
So, ditch the idea that only structured exercise counts, and consider that ALL movement is GOOD movement and benefits your body and wellbeing in some way.
When it comes to movement, what do you enjoy? Or what did you like to do when you were a child?
Dancing?
Roller Skating?
Rock climbing?
Swimming?
Snowball fights?
If you believed that (insert your activity of choice) were enough, wouldn’t that increase your motivation to move?
#4. Always Focus on Your Wins
Be honest – how often does your self-talk center around what’s not working, or what you’re doing wrong?
Do you feel motivated when you talk to yourself this way?
Regardless of what your goals are, focusing on your wins is a game changer. It may not come naturally at first, but being intentional about celebrating small steps forward and giving yourself credit for your hard work will make all the difference in how you feel about continuing.
Pro tip: When trying something new or completing something hard, talk to yourself as you would to your child or best friend.
For example:
- “I wasn’t able to hold that yoga pose but I’m proud of myself for trying. Next time will be better.”
- Instead of “I didn’t work out at all this week”, try “over the last month I’ve worked out 6 times – that’s a big improvement”.
Maybe you’ve tried changing your mindset about movement but you still can’t seem to stick with anything. Or maybe you’re struggling to focus on your wins because there just doesn’t seem to be anything to celebrate.
If the whole idea of movement just feels so emotionally loaded and like you’ll just never get out of this rut, it may be time to reach out to a movement and mindset coach like me for guidance and clarity.
Sometimes we all need someone who’s been where we are to help us move past our stuck points.
There are many ways that a coach can help:
- Ask the deeper questions: A well trained coach will help you get to the root of why you’re stuck. She can help you explore the limiting beliefs, societal programming and emotional baggage that’s keeping you from having the result you want.
- Attunement and Authorization: A movement and mindset coach can help you tap into your body’s wisdom so that you can learn to trust the ways your body communicates with you. In doing so you build up your capacity to become the authority of your body and make choices that serve you best.
- Aligned Action – A coach will help you set goals that are meaningful to you and guide you to take action that aligns, gently steering you back when you get off course or hit a roadblock.
My clients say that my superpower is my ability to meet them exactly where they’re at and customize my approach to their unique needs. If you’re curious about working with me 1:1, click here to schedule a consultation.

#5. Swap All or Nothing for All or Something
It’s easy to get sucked into this trap.
The fitness industry is notorious for telling us to “go big or go home”, or that “what doesn’t challenge you doesn’t change you”.
It’s this messaging that leads us to think:
- If I don’t do an hour, it’s not enough
- Walking doesn’t count
- I didn’t sweat or feel sore, so it wasn’t a good workout
- I only worked out once this week; why bother?
The problem with all or nothing is that the bar of success is set so high and anything less than perfection feels like a failure.
If you tend to be all or nothing with exercise, try on an all or something approach.
Instead of trying to do it all, perfectly, every single day and always feeling like you’re coming up short, flip the script and create a game you can win!
Make it easy to feel successful by lowering the bar (way, way down if needed) and decide what is the minimum amount, type and intensity of movement that you can realistically commit to with the time, energy and resources you have that still moves you forward.
When it’s easy to achieve your minimum baseline, you’re much more likely to do something and to keep going. And hey – you can always do more than your minimum which feels like a super win!
It might take longer than you thought to reach your goal, but you’re much more likely to actually reach it this way than if you set the bar too high and give up.
#6. Use Your Movement Cravings to Guide You
Have you ever practiced a body scan meditation?
It’s a practice that increases your awareness of emotions and sensations in your body without having to change or fix anything

The body scan meditation is an incredibly powerful way to tune into your body’s signals and make decisions that support your wellbeing.
Here’s how I use it with my clients for movement:
- Every time we start a movement session, we do a short body scan to assess how our body feels at that moment. Taking note of energy level, mood, and any aches, pains or tightness in the body
- With that information, we ask three simple questions:
- How do I feel right now?
- How do I want to feel after this movement session?
- And what do I need in order to feel that way?
- We let the body dictate what it needs and structure our movement session accordingly. Whether that’s to push harder because we feel great, or to go easy, or even to take a rest – it all counts and we leave the session feeling successful and better than when we arrived.
I call this tuning into your “movement cravings”. It’s a tool that takes a bit of practice, but is so incredibly powerful.
Just as we crave certain types of food when our body needs it, we crave certain types of movement. And when we can understand what our body is telling us and respond appropriately, movement is a whole lot more enjoyable and translates into lasting motivation!
Related Post: You can read more about the topic of movement cravings here
#7 Work On Your Mindset, Not Your Body
Maybe you’ve noticed by now that all of my tips to help you increase your motivation have been about mindset. There’s a good reason for that – up until now, you’ve been coming at motivation backwards!
Most coaches or trainers try to “motivate” you by giving you a set of exercises to follow, or by saying inspiring things, or by providing accountability. And though that might light a fire under your butt to get you started or complete a short challenge, it doesn’t do anything to increase your own intrinsic motivation.
If you want to stay motivated for the long term… it has to come within. And that happens by re-framing how you think about movement and its role in your life.
Studies have shown that there are four key factors that improve intrinsic motivation for physical activity:
- Enjoying the activity
- Feeling successful
- Being part of a supportive community
- Noticing improvements to your health and abilities
Ironically, a more recent study confirmed these results but also found that focusing on weight loss or aesthetic based goals was a detriment to motivation.
In my 13 years as a personal trainer, I’ve noticed a huge difference in my own motivation and consistency as well as my clients by implementing mindset coaching alongside movement training.
Shifting our “why” for movement from how it makes you look to how it makes you feel is the key to long term consistency.
By letting go of the notion that exercise is for burning calories and shaping the body, and instead embracing the idea movement is a tool to care for our body, it opens the mind to a world of movement choices, allows for more enjoyment, nurtures self-trust and ultimately increases desire to continue.
I teach this movement and mindset framework inside my course, Discover Joyful Movement. Click here to learn more.

#8: Bonus! Download the Motivation Secret
Wow, you made it all the way here. You deserve a high five and my FREE guide: The Motivation Secret- Your Ticket Off The Start Stop Cycle
Click here to download the printable PDF so you can keep these strategies handy.

In Conclusion
I hope this post showed you that you have everything you need to improve your motivation inside you already. 🙂
So raise your hand, reach around and pat yourself on the back! You now know exactly what you need to focus on to get moving and stay consistent!
From finding what moves you to taking an all or something approach…
…it’s all in how you think about movement.
Every step forward is getting you closer to your finish line. And at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.
So now I want to turn it over to you. Which of these strategies will you be trying first?
What belief about movement are you going to shift first? Or will you give the body scan meditation a try?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!


Radiant Vitality – Kim Hagle
Size Inclusive Personal Trainer, Body Image Coach, Non-Diet Nutritionist
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