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Keep fit!

Your ability to keep going with physical activity, such as jogging, racket sports, cycling or swimming, is related to your aerobic fitness or stamina.
Generally speaking, the greater your stamina, the greater the health benefits. If you want to improve your stamina, it's important to start gently, increasing how often you do activity before increasing how hard you exercise.

Have fun!

There are many activities you could take part in to increase your stamina. Not everyone sees exercise as fun and doing something you find boring, just because it's good for you, is very difficult to sustain. However, you can take steps to make it more enjoyable:

• Try out different sports or activities until you find something you like, such as a dance or aerobics class.
• Join a team or club where you could meet new friends, for example a local football team or a sport you haven't tried before.

Activities that you can do as a family or with friends may help with motivation.

When you find an activity you like, exercise at a pace that still allows you to talk. Try to go somewhere different and exercise outside such as in a forest, a beach or a park and make sure you vary your activity so you don't get bored.

Set yourself goals and achieve them - this is a huge motivator!

Even if you usually enjoy exercising, it's likely there will be days when you can't find the motivation to get active. Here are some practical tips to help keep up your enthusiasm:

• Keep a diary that highlights the sport or activity you do. For example, note how far you ran or the match score, your pulse rate or how you felt. That way you can look back and see how you have improved over time.
• Collect inspiration and stick quotes from coaches, athletes or anyone successful around your house or office. Inspirational stories from people who have achieved against the odds may help - if they can do it, so can you.
• Set yourself some short- and long-term goals. Success will provide you with a sense of satisfaction and further motivation to keep up the new lifestyle. Keep your goals specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based (SMART). For example, rather than saying you will get fit by summer, start by setting the more specific goal of going to a one-hour aerobics or yoga class each week.
• Stay motivated

When it comes to staying motivated long-term, it's just as important to train your brain as it is to train your body. Here are a few ideas to help you:

• A great way to stay focused is to keep reminding yourself of the reasons you started exercising in the first place. This may include losing excess weight, improving your health or testing yourself in a competition or race.
• Picture yourself achieving your goal, such as completing a race or fitting into smaller jeans, and imagine what it will feel like. Visualising these images and feelings will motivate you and help you achieve them for real.
• Exercise releases chemicals called endorphins in the brain. These have a strong effect on your mood, helping to reduce anxiety, stress and depression. So whenever you don't feel like exercising, try to remind yourself how good you'll feel afterwards.