When you’re trying to recover from a physical disability where mobility and fatigue are both a real issue, how do you motivate yourself?

Start slow. Train the muscles that haven’t been affected by the disability. Arter some time you will see that you can do it and you will start worki g on other body parts as well! You can do it!

I think what is best I can do at any moment and that is what is going to drive me. I want to improve my self in all the well being and better human so have goal to increase Love, Politeness, Satisfaction, Giving, Humbleness, Patience, Truthfulness, Contentness, Gratitude and all other virtues. Since I go to my congregation which is my school for above. Choose option which will help to practice the above, no matter what limitations are at the time.

This is a real problem for me. I try to just keep increasing my activity a little at a time because I know if I overdo, I’ll backslide. I try to be forgiving to myself. My inactivity and illness didn’t happen overnight and won’t be fixed quickly. But I know if I keep improving I’ll progress.

For me, if I have to reduce my physical efforts due to inability, I increase my goal setting/planning efforts. I work to explore possibilities and refine existing goals.

I heard a talk once by popular nutritionist, many years ago. Students would often complain to him, “I’ve been working out for so long, but I barely see any results.” And he would reply, “It is a ‘physical certainty’ that change is happening… even if it isn’t apparent to you yet.” Just keep working at it. The change is coming...

Just do a little, do something. I can’t compare to a physical disability, but I have asthma, and even this morning my chest was so sore. So I found a 15 minute workout, but only did 10 minutes of it. Did I feel a bit disappointed that I couldn’t do it all? Absolutely. But was I also glad I did something? Absolutely. Don’t over do it - don’t set an unrealistic goal. If I’d have told myself to do an hour long workout even though I didn’t feel well, I wouldn’t have done anything, but 15 minutes didn’t seem too bad. I also like to quantify it - 15 minutes isn’t even an epsisode of Friends, so I definitely have time to do it!

I think the only thing that would motivate me would be the need to recover, to not want to be the way I am at the moment. Celebrate your progress and every little win, because the big wins don’t come along that often. If you keep a diary of how much you can do, it will give you motivation when you realise how far you’ve come.

I set a goal. I’ve several injuries that have kept me from completing 5k races without fear, so I set smaller goals. First it was to just try going for a walk again. Then it was to work on exercises. Eventually, I signed up for a race. It was hard to do, but I felt like I was back in control. I look forward to working on speed now and trying another 5k soon.

I think that you have to focus on the things that you can do or change instead of the things that feel to big or are (for now) out of your reach. Focus on the small doable steps so you can celebrate your success. Instead of focusing on the things you weren’t able to achieve today. Also make the steps about today instead of in a few months.

Try to find some lighter version of the activities, which still brings some excitement. For example if you’re not fit for daily morning exercise, go for a walk in the afternoon. Swimming is another excellent exercise you can tune the intensity of. And most important for me is enough of good sleep, body need some time to recover, don’t push yourself too early. If it has rested enough, even light exercises will bring some pleasure and will motivate for more the next time.