The only thing standing between you and your goal of having that bikini body is your level of motivation. Motivation is what gets you started and what keeps you going.

Motivating yourself to workout alone may be a challenge to some of you; where your motivation to workout at home or in the gym may have dwindled after a good start.

Yet you still desire that bikini body.

So what do you do?

What can you do to get that bikini body that you so desire?

How do you avoid those disruptions and distractions?

What’s the best way to motivate yourself to workout under these circumstances?

How can you motivate yourself to workout alone, consistently; be it at the gym or home?

The key question to ask yourself is: “How badly do I want to achieve my health and fitness goal?”

How to motivate yourself to workout alone is simple. It really is!

When you know how.

So, now answer this question: How badly do you want to achieve your health and fitness goal?

Think about it with focused intensity.

See the goal that you want to achieve in your mind, reiterate your goal, and, more importantly, reiterate the reason why you want to achieve that goal.

In other words, what’s the WHY behind your wanting to be fit and healthy?

What do you want to be fit and healthy for?

The WHY possesses all the power to go after your goal until it is achieved — even if you are working out alone from home or at the gym.

How much you want your goal determines the strength of your motivation.

Related: How to Train Your Brain to Achieve Your Goals

It is that strength that will steadfastly motivate and drive you to fulfil your goal irrespective of working out alone (at home or in the gym).

How to motivate yourself to workout alone will no longer be an issue!

I recall a friend who set herself a goal that she felt extremely excited about. She talked for days on end about that goal; what it meant to her and how she really wanted to achieve it within six months at the most.

A couple of months later, my friend Lizzy, took me aside. I could see she was feeling miserable and despondent. She went on to tell me how disappointed she was that her goal had not materialised.

“Goal! What Goal?” was my honest answer. I had forgotten all about it. It was not what Lizzy wanted to hear.

“You know, my goal is to get a toned, sculptured, bikini beach body,” Lizzy reminded me, with a deep sense of defeat and frustration echoing from her voice.

“Oh that. I thought you were kidding. We all figured you changed your mind since we don’t see you going to the gym or working out at home anymore,” I replied, perhaps a little sarcastically.

So, what happened here? What happened to Lizzy’s drive?

Where’s her motivation?

In the beginning, Lizzy was excited about her new goal of getting a firm and toned bikini beach body as she put it. She was full of excitement, motivation, and determination to achieve that goal. “I will get it no matter what,” were her last words to me. Hmmm.

She consistently went to the gym four to five days a week. Lizzy also took her protein shakes, her supplements, and always asked online personal trainers questions about her training schedule and routine.

She was pleased with her progress.

By the second month, though, she started to go to the gym twice a week, and then it trickled to once a week.

Her dilemma was she couldn’t understand why her motivation to go to the gym and workout had dwindled to once a week halfway through the second month, and down to none at home.

“In the beginning, I was so full of enthusiasm and motivation. I felt nothing could stop me,” she explained, feeling ever so confused.

So what went wrong?

Where did her incredible and unstoppable motivation go?

After careful examination, it came to light that Lizzy had lost her burst of motivation because she was not really passionate about being toned.

She really didn’t care that much about having that toned bikini beach body. In fact, she used to laugh at the skinny bikini beach-bodied women whenever she spotted one on holiday.

Interesting point, huh? See where this is going?

Her goal was merely a passing, passive ‘wish’.

In other words, she did not want to be toned badly enough.

If she did, if she felt passionate about it, she would have continued her workout routine no matter what challenges she faced, at home or the gym.

Lizzy was torn between two thoughts.

The first said, “Yeah, I’d like to have a toned bikini beach body.”

But her conflicting second thought argued, “You laugh at people who have a perfectly toned bikini beach body. Now you want one? Come on! Get real.”

And who won?

Her conflicting thought had the upper hand.

You see, Lizzy would have ‘liked’ the toned bikini body, but she did not turn that ‘like’ into a solid goal.

The toned bikini body idea remained just that, an idea or a wish. As such, her once powerful motivation had weakened until it was there no more.

If she had turned it into a goal, a solid goal, she would have sought after it. She would have been motivated to pursue that goal irrespective of how tired or how busy she was.

After all, it was her goal. And goals are meant to be achieved.

Passion ignites the drive from deep within to maintain the motivation to reach all sorts of goals.

Passion provides the fuel to keep you in a highly motivated state of mind.

Once you find out what you are passionate about, once you find out the WHY you want to be healthy and fit, then the power behind how to motivate yourself to workout alone will become a simple matter of getting up and getting started no matter what, no matter where.

Your motivation to remain persistent regardless of any setbacks and obstacles will be unstoppably strong.

Now, I have included below 10 powerful ways you can motivate yourself to workout — and, in time, your motivation will increase in momentum regardless of any distractions or interruptions.

Motivation fuels you to take consistent daily action to achieve and live your goal; to finally wear that bikini.

The 10 powerful ways on how to stay motivated are listed below. All you have to do is alter your strategy:

1. Plan your health and fitness goal once again

Just simply having a goal will not mean you can achieve it. If your mind is too focused on the interruption of your going to the gym, and you are struggling to workout alone at home, by being frustrated and continually asking yourself, “How can I stay motivated with all these interruptions around me? How can I stay motivated without being surrounded by others who are also working out?” and an array of other similar questions, you will inevitably head towards the wrong direction.

As we saw with Lizzy, you need to have a clear and concise goal with no conflicts.

Simply wishing to have a certain kind of body won’t help.

Simply wishing to lose weight won’t help.

Simply wishing to jog the marathon won’t help.

Working out has so much more to do with the emotion of achieving complete and all-around fitness.

That’s a great goal to strive for; at least for now, whether you’re working out at home or the gym.

You may face ‘at-home-distractions’. If you do, arrange with the people surrounding you a time of no interruptions while you workout. Ask them to respect your workout time.

2. Focus on the emotion of working out, and not on just working out

A powerful way to stay motivated to workout is by focusing on the emotion and happiness that working out will bring.

Endure the discomfort of working out by ‘seeing’ the end result; by remembering the WHY you are working out in the first place.

And an even more powerful emotional booster is to look into the mirror after each workout.

See and feel how great you look. This is a great motivation booster.

3. Reward yourself

When you used to workout, did you reward yourself for having such a great workout?

If not, you should’ve. It is important to reward yourself after every workout. Come up with a list of rewards. Pamper yourself.

4. Stick to the plan that works for you

As we mentioned in step one, planning is important. Now, sticking to the final plan is crucial to your fitness success.

If your motivation to workout has dwindled, and it may at times, this is where discipline and your big WHY kick in.

Allow discipline to motivate yourself to workout.

Allow the big WHY to be your powerful ‘chatter on your shoulder’; that urges you to stay motivated. This ‘chatter on your shoulder’ guides you on how to stay motivated throughout your workout.

5. Quality over quantity

This is key. Do not compromise and settle for less. Do not jeopardise what you have already gained.

True, at times, you may need to adjust your workout.

True, motivating yourself to workout may be an issue.

True, the quality of your workout may take a slight knock.

If that is so, find a way around that to regain as much quality as you can from each workout session, and perform each session with total determination and dedication.

It’s all about quality and not quantity.

6. Set yourself workout-at-home milestones

Chunk your final, ultimate goal into small achievable milestones. You may do this every week if you like. If your goal is to do 100 push-ups and you find it hard to do because you’re working out alone and don’t have others to push you, or whatever reason, chunk that goal down to achievable milestones by performing the amount you can do at the moment and gradually scale up to 100.

Start with baby steps to see what you can and cannot do, and increase it incrementally.

This will certainly keep you motivated.

7. Get yourself a workout buddy

How to stay motivated consistently may still be a struggle every so often, especially when you’re working out alone. If that happens to you, consider finding a workout buddy; someone who will workout with you, and will help you maintain your motivation — and you can encourage and motivate her, too.

You can do this virtually. What a wonderful win-win exchange.

8. Music keeps you going

If finding a workout buddy is a challenge for you, or that person cannot be there for you as often as you like (even on Facetime), enlist your other workout buddy: Your music playlist.

For many, listening to music can powerfully motivate them to workout. Are you one of them? If not, consider that method.

You may be pleasantly surprised how listening to your favourite music can power you up; where you will be motivated, and where you can stay motivated to workout.

For some, they workout even longer and more intensely as they are powered by the loud beats of songs they love.

9. A fantastic distraction you will enjoy

As we wrap this up, here’s a particular distraction I feel you will like. Perform all or part of your workout while watching your favourite TV programmes.

This will be a pleasant distraction that will take your mind off the unpleasantness of working out alone. It could be a great distraction if your cardio routine is ‘boring’. This distraction will override that boredom, don’t you think?

10. Celebrate!

Make it a point to celebrate your successes. You could celebrate every workout completion. You could celebrate reaching every milestone. You could celebrate every week of dedicated working out alone.

Celebrate that you are actually working out alone and didn’t quit.

Come up with a list of celebratory reasons, and enjoy every celebration.

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