FitTip: Apparently women are 30 percent less active at this time of year than when the days are long and the temperature is balmy. But new research on the psychology of motivation suggests that when your drive to sweat is at an all-time low, the fix may be as simple as changing up your approach. Im talking about easy but incredibly effective ways to achieve goals! Make a Commitment Contract In a perfect world, you work out regularly because you actually like all the heart-pumping, endorphin boosting, waist-slimming benefits that come with it. Researchers call that intrinsic motivation, and its a critical factor for staying with a long term routine. But when your inner drive is thwarted—say, by all those Christmas invitations, external incentives can give you the boost you need. Its an idea grounded in behavioral economics, a tool used by many corporations to motivate their employees and improve their bottom lines. Incentives work like a charm for some (a 30-minute jog each day for a month = a new Mulberry purse), but flip it and a penalty for missing a sweat session can be even more effective...especially when it involves your hard-earned cash. People will work twice as hard when money is at stake compared with relying only on their willpower! Try it: make a friendly wager among colleagues or friends: Everyone hands in £10 and whoever logs the most workout sessions over the next four weeks wins the pot. This is an ideal commitment device because you have a financial prize and punishment in place simultaneously. Just make sure the group is large enough, if you have fewer than three people, you give each other room to slack off, and we dont want any slackers!
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 09:15:16 +0000