THE FIT FOR PURPOSE WEEKLY
Thursday 3rd September, 2026
BUILD YOUR PROGRAMME AROUND HABITS
Discipline helps on difficult days. Habits should carry the programme.
Motivation gets most of the attention when people talk about starting exercise.
It can provide the energy to sign up, buy the shoes and complete the first few sessions. The problem is that motivation changes from one day to the next.
This edition explains why habits, rather than motivation or constant discipline, should form the foundation of your programme - and how to build training around the life you already have.
THE BIG IDEA
Most training programmes are built backwards.
We decide what would produce the ideal result, then assume we will be motivated and disciplined enough to keep doing it.
That can work for a while.
Motivation is brilliant at starting things. Discipline can get you through occasional difficult days. But if every session requires one or the other, your plan is asking you to win the same argument with yourself every day.
Habits solve a different problem.
They are the small, repeatable behaviours that become attached to the rest of your life. You finish work and go directly to the gym. You run after dropping the children at school. You prepare your clothes the night before. You have a smaller version of the session ready when time is limited.
None of this is particularly exciting. That is the point.
The less thought and negotiation required to begin, the less your progress depends on how motivated or disciplined you happen to feel.
A good programme should therefore consider more than which sessions would theoretically produce the fastest result. It should consider what you can repeat consistently enough for it to become normal.
That means working with your existing routines, resources and responsibilities rather than constantly battling against them.
It does not mean training should always be easy. The habit gets you to the session. The session can still challenge you.
Purpose tells you why you are doing it. Motivation gives you some early energy. Discipline helps bridge the occasional gap.
But habits should carry the programme.
Fitness is supposed to give you more energy and capacity for life. It should be taking things off your plate, not permanently adding another thing to it.
Knowing yourself, your resources and your routines will take you much further than another speech-inspired smoothie breakfast.
So when building your next programme, start with purpose, enjoy the motivation and use discipline when necessary - but plan around habits.
TRY THIS WEEK
Choose one part of your health or fitness that currently depends too heavily on motivation.
Then answer:
- What existing routine could I attach it to?
- What can I prepare beforehand to make starting easier?
- What is the smallest version I can complete on a difficult day?
- What regularly gets in the way, and how can I remove that obstacle now?
“Run more often” is an intention.
“Run for 20 minutes after work every Tuesday and Thursday, with my clothes prepared beforehand and a 10-minute fallback when time is limited” is the beginning of a habit.
Make one behaviour easier to repeat. Then repeat it often enough that it becomes expected rather than renegotiated.
WORTH YOUR TIME
What keeps you moving when motivation disappears?
Motivation can provide the initial push, but it cannot be relied upon indefinitely. This video explores how realistic expectations and small, repeatable behaviours help you continue when motivation inevitably dips.
When did you last truly switch off?
Why genuine relaxation is a form of recovery, not laziness.
Your purpose is something you are meant to live now
What Practising the Power of Now can teach us about pursuing goals without forgetting to experience our lives.
PROOF IN PRACTICE
Alec is a very successful managing director that I call a 'high achiever'. He excels in everything he does, yet was exercising sporadically, feeling overweight, tired and low on energy, with little sense of what he wanted his health to achieve or how it should fit into the rest of his life.
By understanding his motivations, habits and priorities, we built something specifically around him. He lost weight, built significant strength and muscle, and felt healthier, more alert and more in control of his body and mind.
Most importantly, he built a relationship with exercise where it wasnt something he battles to do: it's just part of his regular routine now.
As Alec said:
“He really took the time to understand me, my drivers, my challenges and my individuality and tailored something specifically to help me be successful.”
TURN YOUR REASON INTO A RUNNING PLAN
Running With Purpose begins with a simple question: what do you need running to help you achieve?
From there, we assess your current fitness, experience, available time, recovery and competing priorities. I then build a personalised 12-week programme around your life and help you adapt it as circumstances change.
You bring the reason. We build the route forward.
SEE HOW RUNNING WITH PURPOSE WORKS
A FINAL QUESTION
Which part of your current routine requires too much negotiation?
What could you change to make it easier to repeat?
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