How All-or-Nothing Thinking Derails Exercise – and How to Change That

Cheryl was about to leave for her planned 30-minute walk when her colleague asked for quick feedback on a sensitive email. When she finished reviewing it, Cheryl looked at her watch and thought, I only have 15 minutes to walk now, so why bother?

If you relate to that example, you might also be plagued by exercise-related all-or-nothing thinking.

What is All-or-Nothing Thinking?

All-or-nothing thinking occurs when someone is not willing or cannot adhere perfectly to their intentions or “ideal” plan. As it pertains to exercise, this results in someone choosing not to exercise at all rather than modifying their plan to get some benefit rather than none.

Cheryl’s case epitomizes exercise-related all-or-nothing thinking. Although she planned to walk for 30 minutes, she chose to abandon exercise entirely when unable to hit that goal. Cheryl has cost herself the benefits that 15 minutes of exercise would have.

Why Is All-or-Nothing Thinking so Common in Exercise?

Research suggests that exercise-related all-or-nothing thinking results from three things:

Idealized Goals

People have idealized criteria for exercising, such as engaging in a specific activity in a specific location or achieving a particular duration or intensity of exercise. These specifics make up their “all”.

For Cheryl, this was walking for 30 minutes. For others, this may be lifting weights at the gym for an hour. While ideals may give people something to aspire to, they can also lead to the belief that anything less than or different from the ideal is not worth doing.

In fact, society has taught us to think about and approach exercising in an all-or-nothing way: we’ve learned through formal physical activity guidelines that we have to meet specific thresholds with exercising, such as exercising for 30 minutes at a moderate to vigorous intensity five times/week.

Avoiding Discomfort

People seek excuses for not exercising because they might not have the energy or time to do it in their ideal way. They might say to themselves: “I just don’t have the energy to do my full plan today I’ll do it later this week.” When people believe that exercising must be intense, sweaty, or punishing to be worth doing, it’s easy to find excuses to do nothing.

Crowded Schedules

People’s exercise competes with many other daily priorities. This could look like: “My day is full of things I have to do and exercise isn’t as important, so I just won’t do it today.” When people weigh their ideal (and inflexible) exercise plan against other needs, like making dinner or finishing a work project, exercise feels less important and easily becomes the sacrificial lamb.

Combined, these three factors lead us to de-value exercise, often outside of our awareness, and make doing “nothing” a seemingly prudent choice and desirable exit strategy. But, this all-or-nothing mindset robs us of doing the movement that we actually have the potential to do and benefit from.

How to Avoid All-or-Nothing Thinking and Get Moving

While we still have a lot to learn about exercise related all-or-nothing thinking, we conclusively know that any type, amount, or duration of movement is better than none. Even just a few minutes of physical activity can boost energy and improve mood, and something as simple as standing up has health benefits too!

Breaking free from all-or-nothing thinking may require shifting how you think about exercise altogether. Instead of asking, “Can I complete my perfect workout?” it may be more helpful to ask: “What type and amount of physical activity is feasible for me to do today?” This could look like a 15-minute walk, parking farther away, chasing after your kids, or dancing for 5 minutes behind closed doors.

These activity swaps may not match the ideal plan, but they can help people do more activity, be more consistent and regularly active, and feel confident that they value taking care of themselves through physical movement. Over time, those “good enough” opportunities to move add up, helping people build sustainable, active lives.

Three Tips to Keep Moving

If you feel that all-or-nothing thinking gets in your way, or is a barrier for your clients, patients, or the employees you work with, try these three simple shifts in thinking:

• Don’t blame yourself for not sticking with exercise. Our culture has taught an exercise formula that sets most people up to fail.
• Don’t be a prisoner to your exercise past. Know that negative exercise experiences in your past can demotivate you now. Comparing yourself to a past “you” who had more time, energy, or physical capacity for physical activity can be demotivating in the present. Acknowledge these facts - then move forward in more positive and realistic ways.
• Choose “good enough” over “perfect.” Nothing has to be perfect, including exercise.

Just like everything else in life, with exercising and being physically active, perfection is the enemy of good enough. So choose the perfect imperfect option that lets you do something instead of nothing!

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