No Sweat
How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness
Dr. Michelle Segar is the world’s leading authority on what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors. As you’d imagine, Dr. Segar has some *really* powerful ideas on, as the sub-title suggests, “How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness.” Big Ideas we explore include the importance of meaning, moving exercise from a chore to a gift and embracing a learning mindset.
Big Ideas
- Why do you exercise? (Meaning matters!!)Why do you exercise?
- Chore vs. giftWhat is exercise for you?
- Finding Opportunities to MoveFinding opportunities to move.
- The Successful Cycle of MotivationOf motivation.
- Your Self-care HierarchyYour #1 nonnegotiable?
- Learning MindsetYou are an experimenter!
- Creating a lifetime of fitnessThat’s what we want to create.
“There is a mountain of information out there about health and fitness, but most of it is just not working for people. I wrote this book to help you understand the science-based reasons why it’s not your fault that you’ve failed to stick with exercise and other health-related behaviors, as well as to give you a new, simple framework for sustainable success. Opportunities to move and enjoy physical movement are, quite literally, everywhere. I hope that the information and practical approaches in this book will enable you to find them, choose them, enjoy them, and use then to energize your life for a lifetime.”
~ Michelle Segar, Ph.D. from No Sweat
Dr. Michelle Segar is the world’s leading authority on what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors.
She is Director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center (SHARP) at the University of Michigan, and Chair of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan’s Communications Committee.
And, as you’d imagine, Dr. Segar has some *really* powerful ideas on, as the sub-title suggests, “How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness.”
Segar shares a bunch of evidence-based wisdom to help us leverage the science of motivation to make optimizing our health and well-being MUCH easier than the way most of us approach it! It’s a fun, empowering and quick read. Get a copy of the book here.
I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!
Download MP3
Download PDFMy interdisciplinary research challenges the status quo within the health promotion and healthcare industries by showing that logical rewards like ‘health’ and ‘weight loss’ do not motivate people to sustain health-related behavior as well as immediate and emotional rewards such as ‘well-being.
Get the Book
Listen to the PodcastWhy do you exercise? (Meaning matters!!)
“As it turns out, research shows that even reasons that sound very sensible and important may not lead us to the results we’re seeking. Some years ago, my colleagues and I conducted a study in which we examined the impact of people’s reasons to start exercising on their actual involvement in exercise. We first asked the participants to state their reasons or goals for exercising, as I just asked you. Then, to uncover their higher-level reasons for exercising, we asked them why they cared about obtaining those particular benefits. My colleagues and I found that 75 percent of participants cited weight loss or better health (current and future) as their top reasons for exercising; the other 25 percent exercised in order to enhance the quality of their daily lives (such as to create a sense of well-being or feel centered). Then we measured how much time they actually spent exercising over the course of the next year. The answer may seem counterintuitive, but it’s true: The vast majority of the participants whose goals were weight loss and better health spent the least amount of time exercising overall—up to 32 percent less than those with other goals.
Think about that for a moment: Our most common and culturally accepted reasons for exercising are associated with doing the least amount of exercise. How can this be?”
What a fascinating study!! 75% of the participants said their primary reason for exercising was to lose weight or to get healthier. Sounds reasonable, eh?
Segar tells us that although those are *good* reasons to exercise, they are not EFFECTIVE reasons. They lack the meaning that truly motivates us.
So, what motivates us?
Let’s look at the 25% who exercised way more. What motivated them? As Segar tells us, they exercised to enhance the quality of their daily lives—to create a sense of well-being, a feeling of being energized and centered. They found a way to get *immediate* gratification out of their exercise—which is a LOT more effective than pursuing some future, abstract target.
As Segar tells us: “Human beings, it turns out, are hardwired to choose immediate gratification over long-term benefits.”
She describes the “lose weight” and “get healthy” goals as too fuzzy and abstract and clinical and calls them the “Wrong Why.” When we lead with those Whys, our exercise become a chore—which then leads to a failure. Who does chores with sustained enthusiasm?!
The alternative to making our exercise a chore? Create a better Why centered on immediate gratification and make exercise a gift you’re giddy to give yourself!
… which leads us to our next Big Idea!
There’s only one basic instruction: Take any and every opportunity to move, in any way possible, at whatever speed you like, for any amount of time. Do what makes you feel good; stop doing what makes you feel bad.
Chore vs. gift
“You may think I’m crazy. Here I am, a professional in the health field, and I’m asking you for now to forget about health factors as your motivator. But I don’t ask lightly. I ask because I don’t want you to fail now, or fail again. If you fail, it doesn’t matter how good your intentions were when you started. Right now, let’s really pin down your personal Meaning for exercise: When you think about exercise, does it feel like a chore you have to do? Or like a gift you can’t wait to open? …
On a scale of 1 to 5—with 1 being ‘a chore to accomplish’ and 5 being ‘a gift to give yourself’—circle the number that best describes how you feel about exercise:
1 2 3 4 5 Chore Gift”
Well, how’d you score?
Do you perceive your exercise as more of a chore to complete or as a gift to give yourself? The book is essentially all about moving from that 1 zone to the 5. :)
How do we do that?
By assigning more empowering MEANING to why we exercise. We need to create the “Right Why”—which is the essence of the first chapter and the M in Segar’s “MAPS” to optimizing: Meaning + Awareness + Permission + Strategy.
Let’s explore some more Ideas and construct our optimal MAP!
If you want to change your relationship with being physically active, the starting place is understanding and changing your Meaning of it.
Finding Opportunities to Move
“Finding opportunities to move (my clients abbreviate this as OTMs, so I will too) throughout the day is surprisingly fun. You’ll be amazed at how soon you begin to become aware of the free spaces in the day that present themselves and the surprising places that are conducive to movement. You may think that your day is crammed so full that you can’t fit in one more thing, but believe me: It’s not true. If you’ve got one minute, you’ve got time.”
OTMs.
= Opportunities to Move!
Segar shares this great Idea in a chapter entitled “Count Everything and Choose to Move!”
Too often we think that anything short of a full-on, super sweaty 30-45-60 minute workout “doesn’t count.” Science says that, quite simply, is not true.
EVERYTHING COUNTS!
When we realize that everything counts, we can look for little ways to move throughout the day. Segar shares a couple dozen ideas on how we can find those OTMs and make it one big treasure hunt game.
A few fun examples: Take a “Long Cut” rather than a short cut by deliberately parking further away, taking a long walk to the grocery store, etc. Walk around while you’re on the phone. Take a “Boogie Break” and just have fun dancing to a song (this is one of Alexandra’s favorites!). Walk at the airport rather than just sitting there waiting for your flight. Turn your meetings into walking meetings.
Remember: Everything counts.
Fun Opportunities to Move are EVERYWHERE. Let’s find them! :)
Other research agrees: Move in ways that feel good to you, whatever that means, and you’ll be more physically active over time.
The Successful Cycle of Motivation
“The Successful Cycle of Motivation starts from the “Right Why”—your Right Why. Now you are choosing to move for more relevant and compelling reasons and also choosing physical activities that give you immediate positive feedback: Walking for ten minutes gives you more energy, you’re enjoying being in the present moment when you swim, gardening makes you smile, you’re sharing stories and laughter with your close friend as you work out. Physical activity feels like a gift. Instead of a chore it’s now a want because you reap rewards like fun with your family, focus at work, and feeling centered. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. And you don’t want it to stop.
You find that you can repeat these experiences any time you like, and this motivation becomes self-perpetuating. You feel better because you are moving your body in ways that you determine for yourself and you naturally want to keep moving.”
Segar tells us there are two cycles of motivation: The Vicious Cycle of Failure and The Successful Cycle of Motivation.
Not hard to guess which one we want to integrate into our lives, eh? :)
The key to the Successful Cycle? We’ve gotta start with the Right Why.
We talked about this in the first Big Idea but it’s a central theme throughout the book so it’s worth coming back to.
In short: If you’re motivation is some abstract, fuzzy future goal like losing weight or being healthy, you have the Wrong Why. We want to re-frame our Why so it’s focused on the IMMEDIATE benefits we get—shifting from the “chore” we have to do to a gift we get to give ourselves.
My current fun physical activity is burpees. Most people don’t associate burpees with fun but I totally do. I started with 1 burpee 143 days ago then added one. So, on day 10 I did 10. On day 100 I (easily) did 100. Later this morning, I’ll do 143.
And I’m super excited about it. Not only am I having fun keeping my streak alive as I take baby steps toward my target of doing 300 later this year, but I KNOW (!!!) that I’m going to feel A-MAZING for the rest of the day after I bang out those little burpees.
My energy is going to be dialed in, I’ll feel really centered and grounded and ready to hit the next part of my day with optimal energy and vitality. That fires me up! It’s not a chore. It’s a gift! And, as Segar tells us it’s actually FUEL for everything I want to do and be in my life!
How about you?
What do you just love to do? Is it going for a walk around the block? Going for a hike? Crushing it at CrossFit? Swimming? Dancing? Riding your bike? Gardening? Surfing?
Remember: It’s not about what you think you should be doing but what you actually *really* love to do. Get clear on that.
And… We want to know: What IMMEDIATE benefits do you get from your favorite activities? Do you feel more focused? Energized? Do you love connecting with your friends as you engage in your chosen physical activity? In a better mood?
Focusing on those immediate benefits is where it’s at. THAT’s the Right Why that leads to The Successful Cycle of Motivation!
P.S. There’s some crazy cool research on the fact that you can simply call something “fun” vs. “work” (and “exercise” vs. “fun”) and dramatically (!!!) change the person’s experience of the same activity. Here’s to choosing FUN! :)
Let me repeat this because it’s really important: Changing your personal Meaning of exercise and physical activity from a chore into a gift will transform your relationship with movement.
Bottom line: If you don’t mindfully give yourself Permission to prioritize time for your own self-care, no one else will.
Your Self-care Hierarchy
“Based on the two most important daily self-care needs you identified, which self-care behavior do you think might be able to help you realize those two self-care needs and experiences? Is it sleep, physical activity, meditation, reading a great book, or taking a bath before bed every night? You might not know now, but you can start experimenting to find out. Take the self-care behavior you think it might be, and list it as your foundational, nonnegotiable self-care behavior at the bottom of the hierarchy. Don’t worry; these hierarchies are not set in stone. They change whenever we determine that another self-care behavior is more foundational to our daily self-care need, which also change.”
How’s your Self-Care Hierarchy?
(I created a fun little Micro Class on this great Idea. Check it out here.)
Basic idea: What’s your #1 nonnegotiable self-care habit that keeps you plugged in? As Dr. Segar says, “Without this, my day is not likely to go well.”
Segar’s #1 is sleep followed by nutrition followed by exercise followed by meditation. Her husband’s is exercise followed by sleep followed by nutrition followed by ESPN. Mine is sleep followed by exercise followed by nutrition followed by meditation followed by creative production.
What about YOU?! What’s THE #1 thing you do that keeps you plugged in? The thing that, when you *don’t* do it, you’re likely to have a less-than-awesome day?
Let’s get really clear on this.
This is my #1 nonnegotiable self-care habit: ________________________________
Fantastic. Here’s to making that a truly nonnegotiable, gonna-do-it-period daily behavior!
P.S. I love the way Tim Sanders frames this in Today We Are Rich (see Notes): “I began our conversation with a question: ‘What are you not doing today that you were doing when I first met you?’ ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ Eric said, laughing nervously. ‘What investments in yourself and others are you no longer making?’ I asked. ‘What daily or weekly practices for a better you have fallen by the wayside?’”
When a self-care behavior becomes a daily need, we sustain it. We prioritize it in our lives much more easily, because it helps us with being who we are by fueling what matters most to us. Because—and here comes my mantra again—what sustains us, we sustain.
Learning Mindset
“With a learning mindset, setbacks and failures don’t enter the picture. They are naturally reframed as opportunities we mindfully learn from. The first time a child touches a hot stove, she doesn’t consider herself a failure—she simply learns not to touch the hot stove again. She adds that bit of learning to her lifetime store of knowledge and then moves right on to something else. In this mindset, we’re not sapping energy by adding up our failures but fueling ourselves with the positive energy that comes from figuring out new ways we can do things. We discover strategies and build skills and resilience that we can use when we inevitably encounter new challenges in the future. And it can even be fun because we get to be creative when we devise novel ways to negotiate with our challenges.”
“A learning mindset.”
I LOVE THAT.
When we have a LEARNING mindset, there is no such thing as failure. It’s all just DATA.
Imagine yourself as an lab scientist. You’re all decked out in your white coat. You’ve got your clipboard. You’re even rockin’ some sweet goggles.
You’re TESTING things in your lab called life.
There’s no such thing as “failure” per se. Some things work. Some things don’t. You’re just excited to test and test and test some more. You have a pure learning mindset.
THAT’s what we want to have as we strive to optimize our lives in general and, in this context, integrate exercise into our day-to-day lives so it just becomes part of who we are and what we do.
What’s that look like practically?
Well, let’s say you ignore your #1 nonnegotiable self-care habit. And, not surprisingly, you have a less than awesome day. You have two choices:
You can beat yourself up and swim in shame about how you just don’t have what it takes to figure out how to optimize (yikes).
OR…
You can put on your lab coat and goggles and look at the data, saying to yourself, “Hmmm… Interesting. I didn’t get a good night of sleep/exercise/eat well/whatever and then I had a terrible day. Fascinating. Let me try taking care of myself better tomorrow and see how I feel!”
I used to have goggles on my book shelf to remind me of this idea. It’s a big one.
Here’s to embracing the learning mindset and celebrating the little distinctions we make as we optimize and actualize!
P.S. This is genius: “But focusing on achieving specific outcomes won’t help us sustain our success. Instead, long-term success necessitates focusing on learning how to sustain the behaviors that create our desired outcomes.
Learning redirects us from achieving arbitrary goals to engaging with ‘learning goals,’ mastering new tasks such as learning how to be active for fifteen minutes on most days is a good first step.”
Self-criticisms are effective and virtually immediate de-motivators. Criticizing ourselves when we fail to meet our plans or a standard in some way is just about the worst way for us to motivate ourselves to improve and do better next time.
In fact, missing a planned physical activity and also seeing the connections between not moving and how you feel and function is perhaps the strongest motivator for consistency and sustainability that I have identified through my work with clients...
Creating a lifetime of fitness
“If you are going to learn how to balance physical activity within your life, the most strategic thing you can do is create small, realistic plans that you can more easily learn how to navigate. For example, mindfully choosing to add even an additional five minutes of physical activity into every day, if that’s all you feel you have time for, will slowly build the realization that you can fit it in. And when you understand how to do that small amount consistently, you can think about ways to fit in a little bit more.
Creating lifelong behavior is your goal, so your focus needs to be on learning how physical activity can fit and stay in your busy life. And that’s not an easy task. People who join a gym and start out with modest plans to attend just a couple days a week are more likely to keep coming and stay members than those who begin with grandiose plans to come every day during the first couple weeks. If you are seeking a lifetime of fitness, it’s important to start smart.”
The final section of the book is all about the “S” in Segar’s “MAPS.”
We have Meaning. Awareness. Permission. And STRATEGY—we need to cultivate a creative, flexible approach that will help us sustain our new habits such that daily movement becomes a part of who we are.
Dr. Segar shares a bunch of Big Ideas on how to rock it.
I love this one. Start small. Build a solid base. And grow from there!
So, what’s your small, realistic target to take the next baby step in creating a lifetime of fitness?!
Consider that your goal is the ongoing pursuit of a lifetime of consistent physical movement and self-care... Your goal is lifelong behavior change, and that’s what we want to keep in mind—always.
About the author
