Optimism That Keeps You Going.

Optimism is good for you! Well, yeah, no big news here: you’ve probably heard this a trillion times before.

But it turns out there’s yet another area of life that gets a lot better when a little bit of optimistic attitude is applied.

Guess what? Your physical exercises will be much more efficient if you actually believe they will be good for you.

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At least, that’s what the scientists of Freiburg University (Germany) say.
They’ve done some research and even published the results in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

The research study involved two groups of people from 18 to 32 years old. They were asked all kinds of weird questions like

“Did you think physical exercise is good for you before you came here?” or “How do you feel right now?”

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and then they all watched short videos about cycling. The videos presented to one of the groups contained information on how great and good cycling is, while the videos presented to another one didn’t.

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At that the interesting part was over and the hard one started.

All participants were asked to use a fitness cycle for half an hour while connected to the electroencephalograph machine, and when this stage was over, the scientists asked them how they felt once more.

And it turned out that those who were sure that this exercise is good for them before starting it enjoyed it much more than those who weren’t!

According to the German scientist, this works for any other kind of sports that require high levels of strength endurance, such as jogging, swimming or all terrain skiing.

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There is a saying that that optimists are people who are badly informed, and there is certainly some truth in that.

Any person with some common sense understands that being optimistic about everything without any particular reason is… strange, to put it mildly.

I’d say that to make your activities more efficient, it would be great to base your optimistic expectations on some realistic grounds.

So unless you don’t go to a gym hoping to take part in next Olympic games, all you have to do to really enjoy torturing yourself with everyday exercise is really believe it’s good for you.

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Of course, the first thing you will need to do is to get your bottom off your coach and make sure it works.

Don’t wait for some German scientists to show you motivational videos and stick electrodes to your head.

Your confidence and your optimistic expectations may have a lasting effect on your motivation. Which basically means that you just have to start — and then you’ll keep yourself motivated naturally.

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