This makes a difference

When I was at high school I loved volleyball, I lived for any chance to spike a ball. My school was one of the better teams in the nation, so much so that we were always expected to place top 3 in any tournament that we entered.  

In my last year of high school we went to the nationals and at the end of the first day we lost a crucial game to a team that wasn’t even in the top 10!.  We were devastated as this could mean that we wouldn’t make the finals. That night we all crammed into some cheap motel room for a team meeting to figure out what went wrong. Our coach Gilbert Enoka, who is now one of New Zealand’s top sport psychologists, asked everyone to give one reason why we thought that things had taken a turn for the worse. After a long, deep group discussion we came to the conclusion that our team needed to celebrate ourselves more.  

From that moment on we became the most animated team in at the tournament. We weren’t just celebrating a win of a game, we were cheering each other on like we had the trophy in our hands after every point we won. The turn around in our performance was amazing, suddenly we were one of the teams to beat again.  

Exercise can be hard, really hard! For this reason you need to create a habit of celebrating your success when you do it. At the end of every session find something to praise yourself for. Being successful can be as simple as getting yourself out the door or as difficult as holding on for that last 10 seconds when the going gets tough in a session. By continually celebrating your success in training you become more attracted to exercise which will increase the chances of you having exercise as a part of your daily life.  

When I hit my driveway after a run I always raise my arms up for victory, close my eyes and say ‘Yes!’ to myself. While I’m sure my neighbours must think I’m a little strange - it’s an important part of me loving exercise.  

Not every session you do will be one to write home about but every session will have something that you can be proud of, celebrate that.