What Really Gets People to the Gym?

Want to make exercise a bigger part of your life? Think about adding a FEEL GOOD experience to your day rather than a chore with long-term health benefits.

This small business owner has learned that if he wants to sell fish and have a thriving business he’d better focus his customers on the enjoyment factor associated with eating fish before the health benefits. We can learn a lot from this business man. Focus on what “feels good” before, or instead of, what is “good for us”.

I know my advice can seem counterintuitive or even illogical. But this advice is about how women in midlife can learn to become physically active in ways they can sustain over their lifetimes. The government and health care industry ATTEMPT to entice Americans to become healthier using logical reasons like “Eating well and/or exercise is good for you. It will prevent disease, help you live longer etc.”  Their promotion efforts use logic and assume people make their daily decisions out of conscious and logical reasons. But guess what? Research shows that those assumptions are false.  People’s daily decision making is often NOT based on rational or even conscious thinking. 

The take away message is simple: People are more likely to continue to do a behavior if it feels good. So, if you are a busy person but want to learn how you can adopt a physically active life that you will sustain, make it about adding a FEEL GOOD experience to your life rather than something you’ll eventually benefit from or think you have to do because it’s good for you. To generously interpret the insights from my wise fish man about the order of importance for selling physical activity (instead of fish): “Feel good experiences, consistently invigorating, and then better health.