It’s easy to work out when your entire identity centers on fitness, wellness and a healthy lifestyle.

But here’s the conundrum: Because your intrinsic motivation is derived mainly from your self-image, you work out the most when you already feel fit. This is because, if you identity as “fit”, you validate your identity with each workout, and that feels good. And if you don’t identify as “fit”, each workout offers little satisfaction for you.

However, you need to work out the most when you are not fit. But when you are not fit, you don’t have the “fit person” self-image to motivate you. So, how do you break that glass ceiling?

Many people dread the idea of working out. Even seasoned athletes or lifelong fitness enthusiasts go through phases of avoiding, or fearing even, their time in the gym. And that correlates with our identity at any given time.

And I get it… You’re tired from sitting for hours on end in a soul-crushing body-bending cubicle at your job. Your day doesn’t have enough hours. Your fit self-image was hijacked long ago by the demands of family life or the immeasurable time you spend working, but not working out.

Yet you know that physical fitness brings health benefits that improve longevity and quality of life. Not only that, but the most important benefit of healthy working out (not over-training) is the emotional and cognitive benefits it brings. The ancients used to say “Anima sana in corpore sano” or “νοῦς ὑγιής ἐν σώματι ὑγιεῖ”, meaning “healthy mind in a healthy body”. While we brush this off as a vapid old proverb, its meaning has greater implications: only in a healthy body can a healthy mind exist. Would you trust your health with a doctor who doesn’t work out? I certainly would not.

So, you don’t only want to be fit; you NEED to be fit. You need fitness to have a positive strong state of mind; but you also need a strong positive state of mind to actually get your ass to work out with determination and commitment to your goals. How do you exit this viscous cycle when you know you need to work out, but simply can’t get yourself to actually do it?

How do you work out when your proven self-image is that of someone who isn’t fit, and someone who doesn’t work out?

Easy…

You need to adopt an intermediatory self-image:

Don’t wait you see a fit person in the mirror before you start working out. Don’t wait until you convince yourself of being fit before you motivate yourself to actually get fit.

You simply assume the identity of someone who is not fit, but who is struggling through regardless. You visualize a self-image of a person who is undergoing transformation against all odds, someone who made a decision to become fit one day, and who is right now fighting hard through unique adversity to get there.

This self-image is satisfying because you claim the credit of the hardship of becoming fit rather than simply maintaining fitness. It’s MUCH harder for an unfit person to do a basic workout than it is for an elite athlete to do an advanced workout. It takes much more courage and pain tolerance for an unfit person to struggle against the odds.

I don’t really admire pro athletes with their immense performance and epic abs, because they’ve already got everything going for them. I admire that full-time working mom who still finds some time for that fitness class, even though she carries all that pregnancy weight, and a bad back from sitting for hours and hours in a cubicle prison at work. I admire that obese guy whose negligent parents conditioned him for discouragement and an eating disorder, but he still tries some daily cardio, even though everything and everyone are against him. He still works out, even though the fitness bros make fun of his efforts while they pose like insecure teenagers in front of the mirror.

Your self-image is that of someone who is above the need for external validation, and who doesn’t care if they don’t look fit (yet). You know that, most of the fit people in the gym would not dare show themselves in public, had they had your misfortune. However, you are more courageous than that, because you have the courage to work out even though you don’t look or feel fit.

So more power to you. Not all of us had the early encouragement and exposure to sports and fitness from a young age. Not all of us had fit role models in our circles. Not all of us had the circumstances to favor a fitness lifestyle early on in life.

You are the underdog who refuses to stay down. And that is much more admirable than any champ.