The trick is to not listen to your mind. Listen to your body. If your body tells you that you need to rest, listen to it. At least listen to it on most days to avoid injuries. You should have days where you push your body to its limit but you should also be smart with it. Don’t injure yourself.
Back to the point. When your mind isn't feeling like it, try to ignore it on most days. Because your mind is an expert. An expert at making up excuses. An expert at showing you what else you can do instead of exercising. On your bad days, your mind is at an advantage. The ball is in its court and it’s ready to smash it. Whatever argument it throws at you will be nonsense but to you on a bad day, it works. You are not ready to fight. Your mind will have the upper hand.
But that’s when you use the secret weapon. The secret weapon of ignorance. You ignore whatever your mind is telling you. You ignore all its arguments. You only listen to your body. If your body is well and ready, you go out and do the workout. Your mind will thank you later but up until you start working out, your mind will be against you. It’s a tough battle, one of the toughest, but the more you win this battle the more you gain strength for the next.

On a bad day, you can also just do a short workout. Because 5 minutes is better than 0 minutes on a bad day. And the reality is that you never end up doing just 5 minutes. You trick your mind. You tell it you are doing only 5. But once you are in it, you do a bit longer.

Today was such a day for me. My mind threw excuses at me, you just finished a long day at work, it's 3 degrees outside, it's very windy, let's run extra tomorrow. It was bringing out all the big guns. It almost convinced me but I am a veteran at this battle. I have been winning it since 2020. So I was not ready to lose. I let it think it will win and then I crushed its hopes. I listened to my body. My body said let's go. 3km at 3°C.
If you struggle on your bad days maybe try this out. If you have anything else that works for you, let me know. You can reach me on my Instagram @rash__eeq or just comment here.