The Stephen R.Covey classic book “First Things First” introduced the four quadrants concept of how our life’s activities can be categorized and prioritized. These quadrants could shed a lot of light as to why some people are able to find motivation to exercise where others cannot.

Lets first review the 4 quadrants as described by Steven Covey.

Quadrant 1 : Urgent and Important
Includes crisis matters, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects
Requires externally induced discipline to resolve these issues

Quadrant 2 : Important but not urgent
Consists of activities such as preparation, prevention, planning, relationship building
Requires Internal Discipline to address these issues.

Quadrant 3 : Urgent but Not Important
Consists of Interruption type activities, trivial calls and mails, reports, meetings
Requires externally induced discipline to resolve these issues.

Quadrant 4 : Not urgent; not important
Examples include trivia, junk mail, some phone calls, “escape” activities.
Does not require any discipline to resolve Q4 issues

Most people suffer from urgency addiction. In order to escape the pain of externally induced discipline of quadrants Q1 and Q3, they get involved in quadrant Q4 activities. Q4 activities to some extent, numb the pain of externally induced discipline via excitement and pleasure. An example of this is going out drinking with friends after a stressful day of meetings and phone calls in the office. The more the pain from quadrants Q1 and Q3, the more the numbing is sort in quadrant Q4. These can be done effortlessly without much thought or discipline.

One of the crucial fundamental flaws that most people make is confusing excitement and pleasure for happiness and joy. These are not the same. In fact the more unhappy a person is, the more excitement and pleasure they will seek to numb their pain of unhappiness. Happiness and joy largely happens in quadrant Q2 ,which requires long term planning and self discipline.

So what has all this got to do with exercise. Well your prioritization of exercise as an important activity will depend on which Quadrant you categorize it as. Let us see the consequences of each approach:

Exercise in Q1 : Urgent and Important
You could be  in a health crisis or you could be wanting to shed the extra pounds in preparation for an upcoming wedding or school reunion. Yes you might get some good results but chances are you will eventually loose any gains made once the crisis is over. It is very unlikely that someone will be able to derive motivation from being in this quadrant for long.

Exercise in Q2 : Important but not urgent
In this quadrant, you know that exercise is not urgent. Nothing happens if you miss an exercise session. But you realize that it is important in the long run. This requires long term thinking, effort and dedication.You need to exercise today in order to enjoy good health tomorrow.

It really follows the law of the farm.You reap today what you have been sowing over the last few years. This quadrant creates true long term sustainable weight loss, health and fitness. Thinking of exercise as a Q2 activity will ensure that you do not get caught in Q1 in the future where your health could be at risk or you find that your weight has crept up on you. It would also ensure that you do not let distractions of Q3 such as phone calls or the like, to distract you because exercise is an important activity. You would also place it on a high priority and this realization ensures that you do not get distracted with Q4 activities.

Exercise in Q3 : Urgent but not important
Anyone categorizing exercise as a Q3 activity will continuously be struggling to find time to exercise. They will be interrupted by the first distraction that comes along. As an example, they could end up being side tracked from exercising by phone calls.

Exercise in Q4 : Not urgent and not important
Chances are that this person will not even begin exercising. He or she may not be able to perceive the long term value of the results and benefits of exercise. Furthermore, this type of thinking categorizes exercise as not urgent and not important and thus not requiring any discipline.

What the above illustrates is the importance of starting exercise with the right quadrant mind set. If you start with the mind set of quadrant Q3 or Q4, is like starting the journey with the wrong map. The journey is doomed to fail from the onset.

Starting the journey with quadrant Q1 is like starting the journey with the right map but one that is too much zoomed in to provide clarity of the end destination. So even though starting with quadrant Q1 is adequate for the short term, you will eventually need to change to quadrant Q2 mind set. This in order to see the big picture which will help you derive long term sustainable benefits from exercise.

Please go to Steven Covey’s web page for more fascinating learning and access to his books.