Everyone knows that it’s important to pay attention to health and fitness, and to get regular exercise.

For one thing, this is one of the clearest ways known to mankind of helping you to remain healthy, live to a ripe old age, and feel your best. For another thing, you’re likely to look your best as well, if you are routinely hitting the gym or the trails.

Unfortunately, many people find their fitness routines feel more like chores than positive life-affirming things that they would actively volunteer to do, for fun. Does your fitness routine feel like a chore? Then try these tips to reset the balance.

Do what you enjoy and what feels right

Rather than what a particular individual or guide says you “should” do. One of the key reasons, easily, why people often feel as though their fitness routines are just “chores” to be struggled through, is that they end up paying far too much attention to what a particular individual or guide has to say about the “correct” way to work out.

It might be that you read about a particular barbell strength routine that is a “must do,” but that every time you do one of those workouts you feel awful. Or, maybe you’ve heard all about the benefits of running, but can barely stomach lacing up your shoes.

The bottom line is that anything you do that gets you physically active is “exercise,” and is bound to do some good. So why not do things that you actually enjoy? That might mean working on your breaststroke and finding a guide to essential sailing equipment, or it might mean joining a martial arts club, or taking up dance.

Stop “going to failure”

The term “going to failure” originated in the resistance training world, to refer to an individual doing repetitions of an exercise to the point where they physically can’t manage another.

Suffice to say, “going to failure” is often an unpleasant experience, but that same “push it to the limit” ethos has increasingly spread to different forms of exercise as well, with more and more systems and routines emphasising the “no pain, no gain” angle. The fact is, though, there’s good research to show that “going to failure” may not actually be the best way of achieving your fitness goals, and may even be counter-productive. Among other things, “going to failure” can severely overtax your central nervous system, increase the chances that you will injure yourself, and also just make you feel totally wiped out after each session.

So, stop “going to failure.” Aim to push yourself, but end each session feeling pleasantly tired, rather than wiped out.

View each successful workout as a “vote” for a new identity

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, has a great recommendation when it comes to how you should view each individual repetition of an action that you want to turn into a habit. Instead of thinking of it as a chore, you should think of each action as a “vote” for the person you want to become, and the new identity you want to embody.

So, next time you have a workout plan, don’t think “I can’t believe I’ve got to do this,” think “I get to cast a vote for a new me.”