Have you ever felt burnt out, had trouble starting, or just felt lazy regarding your health and fitness? Burnout was a big thing for me in the past because I would start and stop and think there was something wrong with me. Once I felt burnt out, lazy, or experienced inconsistency, I felt like this was the end and would give up. I was creating a rollercoaster ride in my health and fitness journey. However, I came up with a solution, and I will share my number one way to avoid burnout in your health and fitness journey.

I created an acronym using the word F.U.N. to help us solve burnout. If we feel or think we will have fun doing something, we typically will want to do it. I hadn’t found anything I thought would be fun to do, yet I didn’t want to do it. The same holds for something I don’t think will be fun; I naturally want to stop doing it. So we can use the following acronym F.U.N. to learn how to make things fun:

F=Fast
U=Uplifting
N=New

As a side note, even though I am focused on health and fitness, you can use this acronym wherever you need to find fun in something you constantly burn out yet want to succeed in. So, let’s jump into the acronym.

The F in F.U.N. stands for Fast

When I created the N.A.C. warrior roadmap, I ensured it included a section that addresses the seasons of life we are in. I could work out for one hour or more when I was married. Yet, becoming a father was more demanding, and my hour diminished significantly, so I had to adjust my expectations. So, choosing the right amount of time spent on something is important. Fighting this will only cause frustrations or, put differently, will not feel fun.

Just as important as it is to find something that fits your lifestyle, you can also have too much of something. Some individuals experience burnout because they overdo it, even though they have the time. They become obsessed and consume so much it’s almost like a high. Then one day, Boom! They wake up feeling turned off from just thinking of the activity. So they get burned out. I did this with running. I was training so much that I crashed and gave up training for a whole summer in college. So you have to find the sweet spot.

Questions to Consider:
Do you have a program you enjoy? How can you change it to fit you? If there’s a program that you want to do out there, what can you do to adjust it to find that sweet spot? Let me know your answers by leaving a comment.

The U in F.U.N. stands for Uplifting

One of the issues I have with exercise and even weight control is that I need it to be more inspiring. If I have hit my ideal weight and there is not much more to do, I don’t want to continue. I need to have a goal or a challenge to create what I perceive as an uplifting experience. Reaching a static goal is one of my biggest challenges and needs to be addressed.

Tapping into my why and using that to figure out how to create an uplifting future helped me. I will put myself in situations (like purposely gaining weight to lose it) that make it an exciting challenge. I need to choose a goal that challenges me mentally and physically. If you can also find your why and use that to discover what will create an uplifting challenge, you will start to have fun.

Questions to Consider:
Is there something you can do that would be uplifting and make you look back and say internally (or out loud), “Dang! I’m awesome!”? Can you think of something in your health & fitness, no matter how weird it may be (like gaining weight to lose it), that will excite you? Again leave a comment and share what that is.

The N in F.U.N. stands for New

If you have kids, you know they typically don’t like to brush their teeth. Companies do well here to make money and make parents’ lives easier. They are great at creating apps and different flavored toothpaste, dental floss, and toothbrushes. They do this to try to make brushing fun and “cool” and create new things to keep kids interested. They know if they can create something new, they have the potential to make it fun for one more kid.

That’s what we need to do in our health and fitness. We must figure out ways to make/or do new things to make it fun and exciting. There is a level of excitement in doing something new. It’s like getting a present that we can’t wait to open up and try. However, just like a present, it loses its luster after we open and use it. So we need to continuously look for something new to keep things exciting.

For some, you need to have a routine. However, I have learned from Tony Robbins that even those who love routine also need variety; it’s just not as strong as others. So we got to keep it fresh and do new things to fend off burnout from boredom.

Questions to Consider:
What new ideas can you come up with to help keep your health and fitness fun? Let me know in the comment section, so we all can get new ideas.

So there you have it, the F.U.N. acronym. The next time you feel bored or burning out, check to see if you are having fun. There are other reasons for burnout, but how can you resist doing something if you can make it fun?