I need to believe that it would be a good thing for me to do
From your assessment responses, if you had more belief that being active is a good thing for you to do, this would help you. Physical activity is good for you for so many reasons, improved physical and mental health, control weight, improve sleep, maintained independence in older age, reduces the risk of certain cancers and other diseases, the list goes on. Some more benefits are highlighted below. 
However, you need to identify why you want to be more active and how that’s going to benefit you. Predominantly, people want to get active to improve their health and to avoid the negative outcomes from being inactive, especially the long term outcomes. They want to embed an active lifestyle so they can build a lifelong habit.
So, what will make you believe that being active is a good thing to do? There’s one thing having the knowledge about the benefits but you need to find something to focus on that makes you believe that’s good for you.
Hearing it from the Right People
People take more information onboard and act upon it when it comes from the right people. Sometimes this may be a close friend, it could be someone in a similar position to you or has been in a similar but has become more active or it could be professional that you respect enough to act on their advice. Although we at Active Blaby are exercise professionals, you’re far more likely to do what a peer or a trusted friend say than us, we haven’t formed that relationship. Also, the fear and regret of letting those people down can also be a strong motivator for you to strive to achieve.
See it through People
Others have gone through what you’re looking to do and have been in the position you are in, the start of their journey to build an active lifestyle. Seeing examples of others will help act as motivation but also help you believe that if they can do it and you can see the benefits for them, then you will want those benefits too, such as more energy and better health. It may harder to find some people with your own challenges, for example if you have health conditions, being more active can be hard. Visit the We Are Undefeatable website to hear some stories from others with health conditions and how they became active.
Rewards
Rewards are always a good thing to promote something and help change behaviour. With physical activity, there are some material incentives available such as the Betterpoints app on the link below, but most of the rewards are internal, the feeling of accomplishment at achieving your goals, the rush of endorphins, the outcomes you achieve, whether that be losing weight or completing a Park Run, meeting new people and being part of group or simply feeling better about yourself. It’s difficult to put a value on that type of reward.
Done it Before?
You may have been more active in the past but you have slowed down more recently. It happens very often as the years progress. But if you remember the positive parts of being active before, whether that be as part of a sports team, feeling more energetic and thinking more clearly, these can all be achieved again. You’ve done it before so where you may not reach the levels you did those years ago, you can still be more active than you are now and relive those positive feelings again. You can swap running for walking, football for walking football, aerobics for line dancing. You’ve done it before, you can do it again! You can find some of these activities in our directory, which can be accessed on the button below.
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