Often we don't even reach the planning stage, because internal and external barriers to the idea of exercise prevent us from making physical activity a reality in our lives.

Various world-renowned psychologists met together in the early 90's,and having reviewed extensive literature on the topic, found that some of the main barriers that people had were:

• Not enough time
• Fear of being injured
• Inconvenience
• Boredom
• Lack of motivation
• Self-confidence
• Self-management skills
• Encouragement and
• Support.

Yes – this is ultimately what it boils down to. If we decide either not to exercise or to drop out of an exercise programme, we are letting the barriers become more powerful than the benefits we know we could get from regular exercise. If in doubt, read my introductory article for just some of the fantastic benefits of an active lifestyle.

Confronting these barriers and "dealing with them" is where it all starts and basically where you need to start if you want to change your attitude permanently.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Be truthful with yourself

For many years, I believed that I could never run long distances and I found the thought of anything longer than a half-marathon (21.1km) particularly daunting. In a moment of being a little more logical and rational, I asked myself what was really stopping me. "Why was I limiting myself? Was it fear of failure and not making it? Was it fear of injury? Was it lack of confidence in my ability?"

I realised that there was in fact no logical reason why I shouldn't be able to complete a marathon (42.2km). I had to confront similar fears when entertaining the idea of running my first Two Oceans Ultra-marathon (56km) last year, and then the greatest race of all, my first Comrades (89.9km) in 2001.

I cannot express the feeling of achievement I experienced as I crossed the Comrades finish line – not so much in having completed the distance, but in successfully having conquered those illogical barriers and fears that had haunted me. I have subsequently taken on many new things in my life and feel more willing to accept other new challenges in my life.

I'm certainly not suggesting that you have to be a runner or complete hours of arduous exercise to really make it. Rather, I hope that I am illustrating just how powerful one's mind is in limiting oneself, often illogically and how liberating it is to beat the barriers down!

So, what is the solution?