The Art of Manliness

#575: Counterintuitive Advice on Making Exercise a Sustainable Habit

Jan 13, 2020

Michelle Segar, a behavioral scientist and author of No Sweat, shares insights on transforming exercise into a sustainable habit. She reveals that traditional motivators like weight loss often fail and emphasizes the need for immediate positive experiences. Segar introduces her MAPS framework—Meaning, Awareness, Permission, and Strategy—to help change perceptions of physical activity. By prioritizing enjoyment and flexible decision-making, she encourages listeners to redefine their relationship with exercise for long-term success.

46:10

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Episode guests

Michelle Segar

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Quick takeaways

Common motivations like weight loss or getting healthier aren't effective for making exercise a sustainable habit, and instead, the focus should be on the immediate positive impact exercise has on one's life.

Adopting a learning mindset and embracing the process of exercise, rather than just focusing on achieving specific outcomes, can help individuals overcome challenges and maintain long-term motivation.

Deep dives

Understanding the Meaning of Exercise and its Impact on Motivation

In this podcast episode, Michelle Seager, a behavioral scientist and author, explores the importance of understanding the underlying meaning of exercise and its impact on motivation. She emphasizes that common reasons for exercising, like losing weight or getting healthier, aren't effective motivations in the long term. Seager explains that our beliefs about what exercise should look like and our all-or-nothing mindset often set us up for failure. Instead of relying on willpower and discipline, Seager proposes changing the way we think about exercise and prioritizing its immediate positive impact on our lives. By redefining our meaning and focusing on enjoyable and sustainable physical activities, we can make exercise a lifelong habit.

The High Intensity Motivation Bubble and Its Downfall

01:26

The Vicious Cycle of Wrong Motivations in Health Goals

01:20

Intro

2min

Reframing Exercise: Beyond Willpower

14min

Understanding Exercise Through the MAPS Framework

2min

Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Failure

4min

Redefining Exercise: Finding Enjoyment Beyond the Norm

5min

The Joy of Sustainable Exercise

18min

Harnessing the MAPS Program for Sustainable Habit Formation

4min

It's a new year and like many people, you may have set a goal to exercise more regularly. But like most people, you've set this goal before only to give up on it after only a few weeks.

Why is it so hard to make exercise a habit? And what can you do to make it stick?

My guest today argues that more willpower and discipline isn't the answer. Instead, you need to completely change the way you think about exercise.

Her name is Michelle Segar, and she's a behavioral scientist and the author of No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness. We begin our conversation discussing Michelle's counterintuitive finding that common reasons for exercising like losing weight or even getting healthier aren't effective motivations. And she shares research on how our ideas of what exercise should look like, as well as the propensity towards an all-or-nothing mindset, also set us up for failure. We then discuss why sheer discipline isn't very effective for staying on track either, and why exercise needs to have an immediately positive impact on our lives if we want to stick with it. Michelle and I spend the rest of our conversation discussing the research-backed framework she's developed to help people make exercise a sustainable habit, which includes less emphasis on willpower and more on changing the meaning you lend to physical activity and its priority in your life.

Get the show notes at aom.is/nosweat.

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The Art of Manliness

#575: Counterintuitive Advice on Making Exercise a Sustainable Habit

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Understanding the Meaning of Exercise and its Impact on Motivation

The Vicious Cycle of Failure and the Importance of Setting Learning Goals

Negotiating with Yourself and Giving Permission for Self-Care

Applying the MAPS Framework and Taking Action

The High Intensity Motivation Bubble and Its Downfall

The Vicious Cycle of Wrong Motivations in Health Goals

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts