Social pressure, fear of failure, health shocks, and new year's resolutions can initially motivate people to exercise. However, enjoying small successes through achievable goals is the most effective long-term motivator. Setting and accomplishing incremental goals fuels further motivation in a self-sustaining cycle, making 10 minutes a day for a year more impactful than 2 hours a day for just a week. Harnessing this motivation wave allows people to sustain exercise habits over time.

1. Got motivation?
A guide to harnessing your motivation to get
in shape, using behavior design principals.

2. Reasons for motivation highs
After surveying college students, I found
many common instances during which people
were more motivated to exercise, when they
hadn’t previously had a habit of exercising.
In the next few slides, I’ll tell you about a few
of them and then show you which one is most
effective.

3. Social Pressure
Students were more likely to run or exercise if
their friends invited them to join.
This was a great way to spend time with each
other and also reduced the ability of either
student to skip their workout.

4. Fear of Failure
If a student signs up for a race or a class,
that provides motivation to exercise,
because if the student didn’t exercise,
he/she would “fail” when competing or
going to the class.

5. Health Shock
One example of motivation occurred when
someone I surveyed had a doctor’s
appointment that unearthed surprising
negative results.
This also created motivation because the
results could be counteracted through
exercise.

6. Start Over
The chance to start over motivates many
people at least once a year. Around the
time that New Year’s Resolutions are made,
gyms are full and people exercising are
much more commonly seen.

7. Start Over
The chance to start over motivates many
people at least once a year. Around the
time that New Year’s Resolutions are made,
gyms are full and people exercising are
much more commonly seen.

8. Enjoying Success
When someone “succeeds” at exercising
several times in a row and sees an effect,
he/she is MUCH more likely to continue
exercising.
And this is the motivation wave that I’m
going to talk about!

9. Success creates further success!
Now how can we harness that?

10. How does success help?
Finish
Start
Motivation doesn’t work like this…

11. How does success help?
Finish
Start
It works like this!

12. The Cycle
Each cycle involves:
1) Setting a very achievable goal
2) Working to accomplish it
3) Succeeding!
4) Starting a new cycle

13. The Cycle
Using this path of motivation ensures
that your motivation won’t fizzle out.
10 minutes a day for a year is far more
effective than 2 hours a day for a week.

14. Try it out!
Now see how this could apply to your
life. Are there any physical challenges
you’ve been wanting to do?
Give this a try and set yourself up to
succeed. You might be successful in
harnessing a motivation wave!