Why do so many people quit diet or exercise programs after a few weeks or days? Have they lost their desire? Have they become unmotivated? I say the answer is no.

If you asked someone who quit a program if they still wanted to feel healthier, look youthful and be attractive, my bet is that they would definitely say that they did. I mean, if they wanted something badly a few weeks ago, I don’t think that this wish suddenly went away.

No; a decrease in motivation is not what causes most people to quit. I believe that the desire is always there, but that it eventually gets overwhelmed by all the aggravation – all the annoying stuff that comes along with the new lifestyle – until they can’t take any more. In the first few days, they haven’t yet had to deal with much aggravation, and so their desire is unimpeded. This is why health clubs are always full of new members in January.

But unfortunately, there is just so much annoying stuff out there – and so many types of it – that for many people, the desire just hasn’t got a chance of outweighing it in the long term. I don’t think it’s worth even trying.

I think a better option is to keep the amount of aggravation as low as possible. This, I believe, is where we should concentrate our efforts. Not on artificially pumping ourselves full of “motivation!”

Let me give you just one example, which is simply getting to the gym in the first place. Usually when people say things like, “I haven’t got the time to exercise”, it really means that they haven’t got the time to spend driving to the gym, battling traffic, hunting for parking and driving back again.

This is a fair point. Even if we had unlimited time, it just doesn’t make sense to me to spend an hour or more on travelling, just for a 45-minute workout. The answer, obvious as it may sound, is to choose your gym based primarily on proximity and ease of transport.

Even though this does sound trivial, you’d be surprised how many people don’t do this. They may join a gym that’s far away because it’s the most modern, or has the best equipment, or simply because they want to train where their friends train.

Don’t you make that mistake. Choose a gym that you can get to easily and quickly – one that won’t involve your being stuck in a car getting angry and stressed out.

And don’t let yourself be led by price. Don’t make the mistake of joining a gym that’s far away and a nightmare to get to just in order to save some money on membership. It’s usually a false economy anyway; if you never get any use from the gym then it is very expensive, no matter how little it costs.

If you don’t have any gyms you can use, you can train in your garage, with just a couple of dumbbells and a bench. Some of my own best results have come from garage training.

I believe it’s important to make your new lifestyle as easy and low maintenance as possible. So always be on the lookout for anything that will remove a source of aggravation, no matter how small. You see, you need to be lazy if you want to succeed.

“Huh? How can you succeed at anything by being lazy?”

Good question. It’s not that I’m against working hard; it’s simply that I believe in saving that hard work for your training.

My view is that you have limited amounts of time, patience and energy, and I want you to spend those on things that are going to give you results.

Remember, it’s very easy, especially in the modern world, to constantly be “busy”, but never actually achieve anything. Aim to do only those things that will really help you succeed; the rest is just a distraction.