It is motivating and acknowledges all the effort and mental toughness you exerted.
You’ve just completed a tough workout, so why should you reward yourself? Isn’t finishing the workout reward enough? While the knowledge you finished is a reward, doing something special can further boost your motivation. Achieving something difficult deserves recognition. You won’t see immediate results if you’ve just started your fitness program. It’s important to celebrate the accomplishments along the way.
Taking a day, afternoon, or even an hour to yourself can be a reward.
If you want to soak in a bubble bath for an hour or prefer to take a nap, the choice is yours. Only you can find the prize that will truly reward you for giving it your all. Find your guilty pleasure and do it or buy it. It also could be something you want to avoid. If you hate to cook supper, buy supper that night. Your reward can be not doing something you despise.
If you want something expensive, consider creating a fund.
You might want an outfit out of your price range or a vacation weekend you can’t afford. Make a jar to help make your dream come true. Create a payment schedule that includes regular exercise with a sliding scale based on difficulty. If your average workout was $1, completing a particularly tough one is $5. Put money in the jar after each session. If money is tight, do something different. If you fail to workout that day, add money to the jar. On the last day of the month, donate that money to a good cause.
Track your progress offline or online or tell a friend.
Tracking your information is rewarding. You get to see your accomplishments daily. Elementary school teachers who give stickers for accomplishments understand the power that acknowledgment provides. Those stars or stickers mean something pretty special. Those stickers are similar to the reward you get when you record your progress. Sharing your progress with a friend, especially a workout buddy, or sharing it online provides even more motivation.
- The importance of the accomplishment doesn’t have to relate to a price range or be something expensive. Rewarding yourself doesn’t require money. You choose your reward, so keep it within your budget.
- If you’ve accomplished a tough workout, it probably was intense. Make the next day’s workout easier. Spend the next day in active recovery, which also can be a reward. Take a walk, leisurely ride a bike, or go for a swim.
- Schedule time with friends or family as your way of celebrating. You can let them in on the reason or invite them to join without telling them the reason. Call a friend to meet you for coffee immediately after the workout.
- One reason group sessions and boot camps are so beneficial is the camaraderie. Everyone knows how hard you’ve worked, so you’ll get plenty of affirmation to keep your motivation high.
For more information, contact us today at Hawaii Fit Camp!
