We all go to the gym for different reasons: some to look good, some to feel good. Some to gain, some to lose. Some to socialize, some to find inner peace. Some to better sports performance, some to improve life productivity.

However, ultimately, regardless of what your intention may be, there is one common challenge that we all have to admit facing -- actually going to the gym, one day after another.

“Wasn’t I just there last week?”

Inconsistency, lack of self-discipline, lack of motivation etc. whatever you may call it, that is what I’m talking about – the toughest, most robust, and most universal enemy out there in our lives. It prevented generations of good-willed young bloods from achieving their fitness goals ever since the first Homo sapien lifted up a five-pound dumbbell.

It is the commanding, unnegotiable, monotone voice that comes up, reminding you of how tired you are, how little time you have, or how much there is to do, whenever you feel like going to the gym.

“Maybe tomorrow...” you told yourself. Wait, but what about tomorrow?

The moment you realized “maybe tomorrow” renews itself every 24 hours, you never looked back. You’ve lost to your enemy.

But, before you give up all your hope on gym and decide to never step foot on a treadmill ever again, consider the following scenario.

Jim is an average college student. Jim has neither big biceps nor overachieving brain cells. Jim loves the library, the books, the cookies, the cakes, and the parties. Jim also loves to workout; but he never has to beat himself up to go to the gym. His workouts bring him pleasure, satisfaction, and positive energy on a daily basis. Jim feels good about himself. Jim lives a healthy, fulfilled, happy life.

Sounds familiar? Isn’t he the every other person you’ve ever met in the gym but yourself?

Even if so, there is still hope. Though you cannot become Jim the exact person per se, you can certainly be a badass who has your workouts work for you!

If staying committed to a gym plan was ever a pain in the butt for you, here are seven ways to make your workouts more enjoyable, and more importantly, easier to follow through with consistency!

1. Prioritize your workout

If you’ve decided to go through a certain “transformation” or just want to add some flavor to your life, why not make a big deal of it? Treat “going to the gym” religiously, as if it’s part of your day that you cannot live without, just like going to church on Sundays or brushing your teeth!

Tell your family about your workouts until they know as much about them as you do. Brag in front of your friends about how much you sweated in the gym at every dinner until they stop hanging out with you. Talk to the person sitting next to you in class about squats, bench presses, and deadlifts until your professor tells you to leave. And, most certainly, don’t forget to give your water bottle a heads-up that he will be your only friend for a while, until you buy that new pair of running shoes.

When you mentally prepare something as a non-negotiable priority, you will make time for it, no matter the circumstances -- that is, no matter how tired you are, how little time you have, or how much there is for you to do. In fact, prioritization is the single most effective practice for you to stay on top of your workouts!

2. Set goals and write them down

Always begin with the end in mind. What do you want to achieve from your workouts? How are you going to achieve it? Who do you want to become in the process of achieving it? Before you go on with your routine, take some serious time off to think through these questions.

Look into the mirror and imagine the person you desire to become in the near future standing right in front of you. How does he look? What qualities or features from him stand out to you? How can you become that person?

A goal is different from a dream in that it is action-oriented, personalized, specific, time-sensitive, and context-based. Just like instructions on a laboratory experiment, whether a goal can be carried out strictly and accurately depends on how much detail you put into defining it. The logic is, the more specific the goal, and the clearer the vision you have for it, there is less room for you to wiggle around, so to speak.

A goal also has to be realistic to you. A goal out of context is merely a wish. When defining your goal, have a reality check first. Do not aim too high, and never compare yourself with other people, especially those who are drastically different than you. Though a long-term “Arnold Schwarzenegger” is necessary, it is more crucial for you to develop your own roadmap with baby steps that will take you one step at a time closer to your ultimate destination. A goal too big is often lost in the process of achieving it. It’s often those small, realistic goals which are your best guarantee for consistency.

3. Track your progress

The only reliable measure of success in achieving your goal is to keep tracking your progress. I cannot stress enough how crucial it is for one to keep a training journal if you work out, or to keep a food journal if you are on a diet, but also how important it is to understand that a plan without tracking fails more than ninety percent of the time! If one cannot measure it, one cannot manage it. Progress comes in small, unnoticeable increments, but humans tend to focus on the negatives and the failures. If you don’t deliberately acknowledge your progress, it will never come your way and knock at your door!

On the other hand, knowing that you’re constantly improving will also keep you focused and motivated. One day you will look back to how you started and how much you have come and realize that it all just happened so naturally.

There are many apps out there on the internet for you to keep track of your fitness routines. I would recommend Jason Loewy’s My Workout+ and My Macros+. They’re very easy to navigate, and have a large database of workouts and the nutritional content of a wide variety of foods so that you will be able to record your own data.

However, whenever you can, track your progress on paper. Just like how you set your goals on paper, writing things down can have a powerful psychological effect that merely tapping fingers on a keyboard or screen cannot substitute.

4. Keep your workout in a manageable amount of time

We’ve all been to these situations where we’re at the gym, finished with our last sets, and then decide to do a few more sets just because “we can” and “while we’re still here.” Though it may make us feel good for doing the extra work, if we do it too often, it does backfire.

In fact, staying at the gym longer than we intend to is not a good habit at all. Putting the harm of overtraining aside, spending long periods of time in the gym tend to make our workouts unproductive, and more importantly, making it a huge mental burden that drives us away.

A good remedy is to bring a timer, not only to time your total workout time, but also the resting periods between sets. Keeping your resting periods in check can reduce the time you would normally waste on texting, reading emails, talking to people, shuffling your playlist, flexing in front of the mirror (!), or winning staring competitions with the air in front of you.

Shorter workouts are not only more time-efficient, but are also easier to fit into the busy schedule of our lives. So, the key is to keep your workouts short and sweet. Check out this HIIT 100S workout program if you’re looking for a high intensity, minimal interval training plan with weights that requires you to time your resting periods.

5. Schedule your workout at the same time everyday

Our body functions according to an internal clock, that is, the circadian rhythm. Supposedly...10:00 in the morning is when we have the highest alertness, 2:30 in the afternoon is when we have the best body coordination, 3:30 p.m. is when we reach our fastest reaction time, and at 5:00 p.m. we have the greatest cardiovascular efficiency and muscle strength.

So, after all of this information, the question is, when is the best time for us to workout? The simple answer would be, whatever time that works best for you. Though our body prefer to function at a fixed pace, our internal clock always adjusts its “factory default” to accommodate our daily schedule. For those who go to bed early in the evening, the clock advances for a few hours, and for others who tend to stay up at night, the clock runs a bit longer. So variations in workout time from person to person does not make that much of a difference afterall.

However, what can really make a difference is the consistency of workout time on an individual basis. What I mean is that, those who exercise at a fixed time during the day tend to have an easier time sticking to a program compared to those who change their times from day to day. That is because our body likes to look for patterns to predict and prepare for future events. When our body detects increased heart rates, increased respiration rates, and all other physiological changes associated with working out at a certain time, it expects them to happen again in the next circadian cycle in 24 hours. So a general rule of thumb is to always go to the gym at the same time, if you can.

I prefer to workout first thing in the morning because if I get it done before everything else, I won’t have to make time for it later on. As you may have discovered, excuses (or our ability to come up with excuses) raise exponentially as the day moves on. However, as I said, find the time that best works for you, and stick to it!

6. Learn about what you are doing

If you are following a program designed by someone else, the best thing you can do before jumping into it is to learn about what you are doing. Claim ownership of your workouts, know what each exercise does to your body, and learn about the science behind your program’s structure. It is only when you understand your training program’s philosophy that you can make modifications to it in order to maximize its benefit for you.

As nerdy as it may sound, it is crucial for you to know which muscle groups are being activated while performing each exercise. Some movements can be done with different muscle groups, so if you don’t purposefully activate the ones that you’re aiming at when doing the exercise, you may end up pulling weaker muscles that aren’t suppose to burden the force.

There are a lot of resources on the Internet -- videos and blog posts alike -- that you can use to learn about your workouts. What I find most useful is to not only look at how the exercises are performed correctly, but also to spend time reviewing how they can be done incorrectly. Learning from negative examples can help you avoid making the same mistakes.

The more you know about what you’re doing, the more faithful you will be to your workouts, and as you do them more and more often, you become better.

7. Do what you enjoy and then mix it up

The secret to love what you do is to do what you love. When you have the option, why not do the workouts that you enjoy the most? If you hate treadmills with a passion, maybe try spinning classes or the ergometer (indoor rowing machine), and then change to swimming when you get tired of both.

The same logic applies to weight training. Build your workouts first around exercises that you find the most comfortable with or the ones that give you the greatest satisfaction. Also remember to switch up the exercises, and the order of those exercises, every now and then so you will always have something new to look forward to.

Don’t be afraid to deviate your workouts from the program. A program is only supposed to be a general guideline, not a matrix that confines your capacities. Its effectiveness, afterall, varies greatly among individuals. You should be more concerned with what works for you, personally, and what best serves your individual needs.

Bonus: Beyond the seven tricks (everything else that is also important)

Prioritize your recovery. It takes normally about 48 to 72 hours for a large muscle group to recover after a workout, so make sure you sleep enough every day and consume a lot of protein and healthy carbohydrates in your diet.

Have a good playlist. Create a playlist of music that can get you excited and keep you focused in the gym. Spotify is where I discovered lots of awesome playlists for workouts. For those who likes to listen to audiobooks, audible is where I found numerous incredible titles that have had me accompanied while my body does the exercises.

Cheat meals. Have a cheat meal every once in awhile, say once per week, but not after every workout. A reward system only works when it is not so generous.

Have mercy on yourself. Constantly remind yourself that you are a work in progress. Let yourself know that it is totally okay to not finish the last set and it is totally okay to not go for the heavy weight. What? You call it an excuse? I call it self-compassion. We tend to judge ourselves under a harsher light than anyone else, so giving yourself some room to breath is always a good idea.

Last but certainly not least, do not compare yourself with other people. Know that no other person in this world is qualified to measure your success. Never get discouraged by other people’s achievements; rather, turn them into your own motivation.