Motivate yourself and you will motivate others

The main reason I started writing these posts is to try to motivate and encourage others to get involved. We don’t need to be reminded of the rewards of physical fitness, but we do need motivation to get started and encouragement to keep going.

Here’s my motivational tip for today: If you start a new fitness program or make fitness a regular part of your life, you will inspire someone else to do the same. 

What could be greater than making your own life better? The answer: Making someone else’s life better.

Talk about what you are doing. You are likely to inspire a friend, a family member, a colleague, or just someone reading your Facebook posts. I have been inspired to exercise because of countless others. Some of the best moments in my life happen when someone tells me that they are getting fit because of the things they have seen me doing or heard me talk about.

Start doing something today. Tell others about it. It feels good to let people know when you have just finished a 5K, are working on a home fitness program, or are participating in a group exercise class.  More importantly, those simple comments about what you are doing may inspire someone else to do the same.

One of my favorite teaching quotations has always been the wisdom of Henry Adams: “A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence will stop.”

The same wisdom is applied to fitness. You start a fitness routine, and it will inspire someone else to begin too. Then that person will motivate someone else, and on and on it goes.

If getting yourself in better shape is not enough motivation to tackle a new fitness experience, then consider the lives of others. We possess the ability—be it in a blog, a conversation, or a simple Facebook post—to do or say something to motivate another person to improve their lifestyle.

I hope you join me in this challenge to motivate and encourage.