What do you tell yourself or visualize to stay motivated to workout

I don't use motivation--it'll never last. I use habit. Exercising is just something I do everyday.

What are your workouts? Do these workouts consist of physical activity that you actually enjoy doing or are you forcing yourself to do these particular things just because you've heard they're a good workout or the burn X calories or whatever?

In my experience, engaging in activities that you don't particularly like just for the sake of "workout" doesn't tend towards long term consistency or adherence to a regular exercise regimen. It is also highly likely that your interests, available time, etc will change over time and thus your exercise regimen will change as well.

Once upon a time I was a pretty serious road cycling enthusiast and spent hours every week training for various cycling events during the season. I loved it for about 5 years and then I noticed that it started to become a chore and I was having to force myself out on rides and I just didn't have the motivation or passion that I once had. Did some self reflection and decided I was just done with that, and that was ok and have settled into a nice routine of mostly active recreational activity just for fun and enjoyment...but it's also good exercise.

Motivation is not one of my strong skills, speaking as an aging-hippie hedonist. I try not to rely on it.

Nonetheless, I'm more active than average, especially much so for my demographic.

For me, the key thing has been finding active things that I think are fun - ideally so fun I'd do them even if they weren't good for me. Having found such a thing (quite a few years back), I learned that I'd do other active things (that I didn't inherently enjoy as much) to sharpen my abilities at that one, to stay in shape for that one, etc. As I got fitter, other things that previously had been too hard (so unpleasant) also became fun.

It still seems practically magical to me, honestly.

My motivation comes from the fact that I know I feel better on days that I exercise. I get depressed on days I don't unless I'm busy doing something I really enjoy. Experience has taught me that the way I feel going into a run has little to do with the way I feel after my run. I always feel calmer and more at ease. That feeling makes it worth doing.

My motivation right now is that I bought clothes that are definitely too small for me on purpose . Not sure they’re actually the thing motivating me, but I will think about them once in a while.

Deeper motivation:
- I want to be one of those very fit older people, so probably best to be active now already.
- I'm motivated by seeing my fitness level improve (running faster, longer, further).

As for 'I'm excited/ready to give it some' motivation: sometimes happens, sometimes not. It's habit at this point, even though I will skip the occasional workout if not feeling good (but never twice in a row). I start to get antsy if I don't exercise, running/exercise helps me relieve stress - I'm not sure that falls under the category 'motivation' 🙂

I have a love/hate relationship with my ellipticatal machine. It has a timer on it and sometimes (not always), I think about the minutes remaining and tell myself that I can readily do this without dying. It’s always doable; desire sometimes just doesn’t match the need.