Involvement in regular physical activity produces a long list of benefits: building a better body; preventing disease and promoting good health; mitigating stress and improving mood.
But physical activity also can become play — something you do for no other reason than for the sake of doing it. You’d do it even without gaining any other secondary outcomes. The pleasure and satisfaction derived from your participation is reason enough to motivate you to even go out of your way to get it done.
Fun fitness events are set for today and Thursday. See sidebar at right.
Unfortunately, too many people consider physical activity to be hard work and never play. They endure the exercise experience as a means to some other end. For example, they exercise to manage weight. If it wasn’t an effective means of burning calories, improving metabolism and moving the scale in the right direction, they wouldn’t do it.
It’s more fun to appreciate and enjoy your activity, allowing physical activity to become a source of pleasure and purpose in life. Exertion can be exhilarating.
Try this:
- Focus on simply enjoying the exercise experience or take a personal mastery approach to physical activity. Don’t evaluate your success by comparing yourself with others.
- Define success on your own terms.
- Work at applying yourself to physical activities.
- Develop new skills, learn and improve.
- Derive pleasure from your participation and purpose from what you have accomplished or from planning what you can do next.
- Or don’t worry about improvement at all. Just use exercise as a break from the responsibilities of your hectic life. Use the time to daydream or enjoy the world around you.
Exercise can be a journey of self-discovery and personal development. It also can be just plain fun to do. The two activities I personally enjoy the most are biking and hiking. Here is a link to short video that conveys some of the pleasures of pedaling. In the winter when I can’t get out and ride my bike as easily, I like to hike.
Exercise can be an adventure to look forward to. What kind of physical activity could become a pleasant pastime for you? Possibly even a passionate pursuit that you can’t think of living without?