Motivation can be one of the biggest barriers to running. Often, I really don’t want to run because I’m busy, or tired, or I listen to the inner voice that tells me I’m not good at running.
But I also know that running makes me feel good (usually afterwards!). I also really value exercising outdoors because it gives such a boost to my mental health, and it helps to quiet the busyness in my brain.
So I went searching for ways to hack my motivation and found two therapists who were willing to help.
“Motivation is a fickle friend,” says Carina Tudor-Sfetea, a BABCP-accredited senior cognitive behavioural therapist and supervisor, and mindfulness teacher at Project Even Keel. “Many of us think we need to feel motivated to actually do something—we’re looking for that impulse of energy, excitement, buzz.
“The problem is that often, if we’re honest, those feelings don’t come.”
Talia Seder, a CBT and EMDR-licensed mental health counselor at a private Manhattan practice and former D1 athlete, agrees. “Lacking motivation is such a common feeling for all athletes!” The hardest part, she says, is starting, so I asked Tudor-Sfetea and Seder the psychological strategies they use instead of motivation to get them going on a run.
1. The two-minute rule
It’s often the thought of how long a run will take that puts me off, but Tudor-Sfetea has a solution to trick your brain into getting started: the two-minute rule.
“When you’re thinking about starting something new or complex in some way, it can feel overwhelming,” she says. “So, tell yourself you’ll only do it for two minutes. After two minutes, you can stop—but often, you’ll keep going.”
2. Warm up in a way that doesn’t feel like a warm-up
A strategy used by Seder is to try a less conventional warm-up. “Warm your body up in a fun way that doesn’t feel like work,” she says.
“You can start dancing or hyping yourself up while stretching to your favorite music and once your blood is pumping you won’t even remember why you didn’t want to go for a run in the first place.”
3. Use a grounding technique to get you started
“Sometimes starting off with a walk and then turning it into a run can work wonders,” says Seder. “A grounding technique I often use with clients is a color walk. You start by walking and pick a color in your mind.
“Then take time to notice everything around you that matches it, while staying aware of your surroundings. It helps shift your focus outward, regulates the nervous system and brings a sense of calm. When you feel ready, you can move that walk into a gentle run.”
4. Follow a plan, not your mood
You don’t need to rely on feeling like running if you’ve got a plan in place, Tudor-Sfetea says. “You need a very specific plan. As I like to teach my clients, plan it to death.
“Planning your route, what you need to wear and getting any kit—like your headphones and sports watch— charged and ready helps,” she says. “Think about what needs to happen before: do you need to eat earlier so you’re not hungry on your run? Or have something ready to eat for when you get back?”
Deciding exactly when you’ll run well in advance can also help.
“Saying sometime next week makes it easy for Friday to come around and for you to talk yourself out of it, but committing to Tuesday at 6.30pm gives it appointment status. You can even add it to your calendar.”
Seder adds that you should work with, rather than against, yourself. “Know your schedule and optimize to get the best results,” she says. “If you feel your best in the morning, try building that into your routine.”
5. Have a backup plan
You’ve got your plan, but you also need a backup, says Tudor-Sfetea. “Think about what you’ll do if things don’t go as expected—you finish work late or you’ve not slept well the night before.
“Maybe you decide you’ll still go, but adapt by heading out later, or maybe you use what I call your one reschedule opportunity. You can reschedule once that week, but you’ll need to decide when you’ll do it again, specifically.”
6. Use your values rather than feelings to guide you
Tudor-Sfetea says that a useful exercise when you are feeling unmotivated is to figure out what kind of person you want to be and what kind of life you want to live. “There are many ways to do this, from worksheets to experiential exercises, but the idea is that you discover the qualities you want to live by, moment by moment.
“Write a list of values—these can be things like adventure, curiosity, self-compassion, ambition and authenticity—then every time you need to make a decision, you use these to guide you.
“Say you planned to go running on Tuesday at 6.30pm, but come that time all you can think is ‘I can’t be bothered’. What action would be more in line with your value of physical fitness? Probably to still go. And maybe you also hold a value of self-compassion—so you go and take it bit by bit without forcing yourself to achieve a personal best.
“And maybe you also hold a value of humour, and you laugh if you get lost along your route, rather than berate yourself.”
7. Check in with any internal and implicit beliefs
Sometimes not wanting to go on a run or do any exercise can be more about the deep-rooted beliefs we have about ourselves, or the arbitrary rules we set for ourselves. For example, you might think that you aren’t sporty enough to start running. Or, you might tell yourself that if you don’t run for an hour three times a week, then what’s the point?
“If these thoughts resonate,” Tudor-Sfetea says, “ask yourself how helpful they are? How much do they help you live the life that you want for yourself? If not so much, can you loosen them up a little? Instead, start telling yourself: ‘It’s better to start small and do a little, than to do nothing at all’ or ‘If I can’t run for long, I can walk in between’.”
She says giving yourself permission to make mistakes and not being so hard on yourself can reduce the barriers and critical self-talk that stop you from going on a run.
Carina Tudor-Sfetea is a BABCP-accredited senior cognitive behavioural therapist and supervisor, a mindfulness teacher at Project Even Keel. She is also a university clinical and research supervisor with published peer-reviewed articles.
She has worked in the field of psychology and mental health since 2013, in universities, the National Health Service in the U.K., as well as privately. She now specializes in working with high-achievers whose fear of failure shows up as low self-esteem, high-functioning anxiety, or OCD, including neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ populations.
Talia Seder is a former D1 athlete from the University of Pennsylvania. She now works as a CBT and EMDR Licensed Mental Health Counselor at a private practice in Manhattan, specializing in social anxiety and trauma. Having spent much of her life in performance-driven spaces, she helps people overcome feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, burnout and chronic stress.