How Understanding Drug Addiction Can Motivate You to Exercise
26.09.11
Explores the reasons for this lack of motivation and suggests that there may be easier ways to conquer it.
The fundamental problem with exercise is that people have to predict how good they'll feel afterward in order to motivate themselves to do it. And people are notoriously bad at predicting how they'll feel in the future. For example, people tend to remain in petering romantic relationships longer than they should, overestimating how painful the break-up will be; afterward, they wallow alone at home in their depression, underestimating how beneficial socializing with friends will be for mending their broken heart.
A critical part of the distortion in these "affective forecasts" involves the timing of events. With exercise, the pain comes before the pleasure. The beginning part of a workout is much less enjoyable than the middle or end. (With drugs, of course, the opposite is true: the fun comes first, followed by the hangover or withdrawal.)
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Source: TIME