The reason I hear most often for people not working out is lack of motivation. Yes, there are hundreds of ways to get and stay motivated from your doctor telling you that you have high blood pressure to that upcoming Florida vacation or class reunion.

Today I’m going to give you my 3 best motivation tips. If you actually put these tips to work you’ll surprise yourself how quickly you become motivated to workout.

Tip#1: Go shopping for new clothes

I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “What? I hate the way I look and shopping for clothes is only going to remind me of it. How is that going to motivate me?” Well, being reminded of it is reason in itself, but I meant to go shopping for new workout clothes. Buy just ONE really nice fitness outfit that you’ll look forward to wearing and ONLY wear it to your work outs. Then set a short-term goal like “If I don’t miss a workout this week I’ll go buy another outfit on the weekend.”

Tip#2: Get yourself fired-up… every day

You can’t hit a target you can’t see. Visualization is used by the top performers in every field. It doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn’t have to take long and WOW does it get you revved up to take action! It only takes a minute or two a day. That’s it. In fact the more you do it, the less time it takes. Here’s what to do:

Take minute and in your mind’s eye see yourself with your best body (not somebody else’s, yours). See yourself looking in the mirror wearing your favorite dress or jeans. Make it vivid – see the colors, hear the usual noises in your house. Let that feeling of confidence and excitement flow through you – don’t hold anything back – just let yourself feel.

Don’t believe me? Think it’s a bunch of “new age” hooey? All I have to say is – Try it (nobody has to know). Set your smartphone timer to 2 minutes. (It’s best to use an audible timer so you don’t keep breaking your concentration by looking at the time). Close your eyes and try the visualization technique I just described and stay focused until the timer goes off. If your mind wanders start again. It gets easier with practice.

Tip# 3: Tell the world your plans

Here’s your chance to use Facebook, LinkedIn and all the people on your e-mail list for something more than sharing pictures of your cat or forwarding bad jokes. Tell everyone you know that you’ve started on this fitness lifestyle that includes working out every day and eating better. Post pictures and results (even bad ones). Funny, it’s the bad ones that motivate me even more. Then invite everyone to check in on you. Peer pressure works, use it to your advantage. Plus your good friends will help you by not tempting you with bad food and bad habits.

Bonus Tip: Stop the scale “routine”

The surest way to kill your motivation is to continually step on the scale. If getting on the scale is part of your daily routine – stop it now! Your weight fluctuates for a thousand different reasons every day. It’s very unlikely you’ll lose weight in a perfectly straight downward line. But this doesn’t mean you should give up. Every single person I’ve met that has exercised and eaten properly and consistently has lost the weight – every single one. AND every one has had struggles and plateaus and just plain “bad days”. But that’s okay. If it were easy, everyone would be thin.