What to Do When You Want to Exercise… But Not Today
My daughter saved up her money, bought face paint, and set up a stand on our drive way. After letting her sit there a while, my husband, Nathan, decided to be her first (and only) customer. She was beyond thrilled, and he certainly got his quarter’s worth of face paint. Later, I asked him about his decision to let her paint him up like a clown. His simple, yet thoughtful response could transform a life time of decisions ranging from parenting to exercise.
Like most adults, I wasn’t particularly excited to have my face painted due to the mess and clean-up it would involve. Thus, as an Exercise Psychologist, I was quite interested in what motivated Nathan’s decision to behave against the majority.
When I asked Nathan about his decision, he explained, “I didn’t really want to, but I know 20 years from now I’d regret it if I didn’t. She’s not going to be five much longer, and it’s important to me to play with and invest in our kids. I’m glad I did, it was fun.”
Now, before anyone gives Nathan too much credit, I’d like to direct our attention to a behavior theory called the Disconnected Values Model (DVM; Anshel, 2008). The DVM describes the thought processes Nathan used to guide his behavior, i.e. his decision to behave in line with his values (e.g. investing in our daughter) in the face of barriers (e.g. the mess, being tired, etc.).
Nathan didn’t know he was using the DVM process (as far as I know), but when he explained his decision, he spoke step by step through the DVM action plan that aligns a person’s values with their behavior.
Let’s look at the DVM action steps in a scenario that you might find yourself in– where you want to sleep in instead of exercise. The following DVM steps have been shown to help motivate value-driven behavior in such situations:
1. Take an aerial view.
Psychologically, step inside a drone, fly above your life, look down, and reflect.
You identify that: today, I want to stay in bed and sleep.
Next, consider your cumulative life decisions by asking yourself: 10, 20, and 30 years from now, how will I feel about my decision to skip exercise this week, month, or year?
2. Recognize the life-time effects.
Let’s be real. There ARE benefits of staying in bed— less on the to do list, less effort, and more rest! Yet, what are the consequences of skipping exercise? Early death, disease (e.g. cardiovascular, type II diabetes, etc.), loss of physical strength, functioning, energy, increased anxiety, depression, etc… Consider whether the benefits of inactivity outweigh the consequences.
3. Name your life values.
What do you value most in life…. family? faith? friends? health? work….
4. Align your life with your values.
If health is something that you value, yet you identified that you are physically inactive. Is your physical inactivity consistent with the life value of health?
Whether it’s investing in your children, or getting out of bed at 5:30am to exercise when you’re tired, reflecting on your life values has been shown to be a source of energy to persist today for the sake of those values, even when you really don’t want to.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
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References:
Anshel, M. H. (2008). The Disconnected Values Model: Intervention Strategies for Exercise Behavior Change. Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology, 2, 357-380.
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