I feel like it’s been two weeks non-stop and I’m getting bored of it now; it’s hard enough to motivate yourself over the Christmas period (what with catching up with friends and family, another after eight “just one more” and that magically refilling glass). When it’s raining and there’s more fun to be had inside you start to go into hibernation mode – I am trying my hardest to fight those instincts!
When the weather is nice you want to go out and make the most of it, so how do you keep motivated when you don’t want to get outside because the weather is foul? That was a question I posed on Twitter and the responses were quite interesting; some replied with the finish (a hot cuppa afterwards was very popular), some with being able to enjoy any food they want, some said they did indoor activities instead, whilst others said removing the Christmas weight, but my favourite answer had to be for fun.
Everyone seems to treat doing exercise as a chore.
When we treat it like that it’s bound to lose the fun isn’t it? But then when we have such busy lives and sitting down and doing nothing seems to be a rare treat, so how else would you end up looking at it? We seem to have forgotten that as kids going to the park and running around was recreational, fun time. I used to spend hours on my bike, or playing ‘it’. It was actually fun to get out of breath. That was how we socialised. We may be more sensible adults now but did exercise have to stop being fun?
I often go for runs, with friends; I have a training bike ride lined up, with friends; I go climbing, with friends; I sometimes do these things on my own as well but they’re still fun. And sometimes admittedly you do something and it’s not so fun because it was wet, because you got cold or because your knee started hurting. But I always feel it’s worth doing it in the end.
I want to challenge myself because I think doing so will be fun and rewarding; I’m doing all of my challenges, at present, with friends because the experiences will be worth sharing; and if anytime I can’t convince myself that running in the wet and cold is going to be fun, I can always jump into the puddles like a kid and get my friends and myself muddy, because that will definitely be fun!