Today I’m going to show you the easiest ways to get motivated to exercise and stay motivated to exercise for years to come.

But first, I’d like to explain just a little bit of behavioral psychology.  Don’t worry, I’m getting rid of the technical details and getting to the heart of the matter.

First off, behaviors that are rewarded are continued, behaviors that are not rewarded or even punished are discontinued.  (I know this sounds too obvious but I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.)

This wouldn’t be so bad except that short term rewards are the most powerful as are short term punishments.

This means that because the pain of exercising is immediate and the pleasure is far off (losing weight, greater energy, higher sex drive) motivation to exercise tends to fall off very quickly.

So what can you do to change this?

One solution that works for many people is to build in short term rewards for exercising.  So doing something indulgent every time you go to the gym.  One man allowed himself to watch 30 minutes of TV every night we went to the gym.  Another woman allowed herself to luxuriate for an hour in the tub.  You’ll have to find out what works for you.

However there’s an even easier to way to build and sustain motivation than rewarding yourself for exercise.

The answer: do only fun activities for your exercise.

Do you remember what it was like to ride your bike when you were a kid?  How about roller skating, ice skating, playing freeze tag?  I know you remember.  You got a lot of exercise doing these activities and you they were FUN.

If your exercise was fun, you’d look forward to it.  You’d feel good about it before, during and after.  And guess what any exhaustion you feel would be worth it for all the fun you’d have.  You wouldn’t have to motivate yourself to exercise.  You might even have to hold yourself back because you don’t want to stop.

Get creative and you’ll find something fun you can do for exercise.  And if you can’t think of something ask the most playful people you know what you can do–kids.  They always think of something.