"Nothing will work unless you do."

This is an easy and fun one.  Human beings develop physically in an exponential way.  If you combine sleep, diet and exercise that is.  I learned this on my road back to recovery.  If would walk one block for a week the next week I could walk one and a half.  The next week 2 blocks.  The best and easiest thing you can do here is keep trying sports or activities until you fall in love with something.  Get 2-3 of those and the rest will take care of itself.  If you get addicted to an activity - which you are physically hardwired to be able to do you will get your exercise in without exerting any mental energy or work.

It could be basketball, racquetball, pickleball, salsa dancing, drum playing, swimming, jiu jitsu, volleyball, soccer, hiking, walking\running and listening to music,  etc.  If you get your friends or a social group involved you will find even more reasons to do this.  

Life is about habit building.  What has worked for me is to just get it out of the way and do it first thing in the morning.  Your health is your priority,  You want to create a lifetime habit.  The easiest way to do this is to build it into your day.  Every day -  this way if you miss one or 2 days you are still actually hitting the exercise button 5 days a week.  

The best way to start that worked for me is just to start with a very achievable non threatening amount of commitment.  I started with 20 minutes a day.  I could barely walk with my autoimmune but I made it out.  I noticed that after about 8 minutes I would start to feel better and after about 20 I would start to feel worse and go back home to recover.  This was during my worst health.  The key is consistency.  If you build consistency and just go for a walk and listen to music and aim to do that every day first thing in the morning or later if you miss it - I guarantee you without trying you will start running within a year without even trying.

One thing that blew my mind and perspective is a short video by Matt Fraser an Olympic athlete and cross fit world champion.  The man is an absolute stud and BEAST.  Listen what he has to say about starting an exercise regimen: 

I think the biggest thing people get wrong about exercise is that they make it this painful super hard thing in their head.  When they do exercise starting from nothing they usually go way too hard and push themselves too much to start.  Often feeling nauseous at the end.  It turns into this terrible chore and the mind attaches pain to the idea of exercise. 

Instead of this they should focus on consistency and making it fun along the way.  Look it's good to push and challenge yourself. But first establish consistency.  Human beings and especially our brains have a massive amount of real-estate dedicated to motion.  Your muscles are designed to adapt and get stronger as long as you don't over train, get appropriate protein and rest.  

Some of the most blissful moments of life come from finding a synergy between the brain and the body.  It feels good to get better at something and master a movement.  There is a beautiful Zen like state you can get into while playing sports and mastering a movement.  I highly recommend things like sports, drums or dance where you can combine movement with music and social activities.  You can uncover a tremendous amount of free and limitless joy here.  

The benefits of exercise on mental health are absolute profound.  It is why we were put on this planet.  We are literally designed to move.  coincidentally there is one thing that a human being is better at then any animal in the physical realm and that is the ability to transverse long distances.  No other land being can travel in one direction for as long as human beings can.  It is why we have elite long distance marathoners that can complete 100+ mile distances in a single trip.  

I exercise because I got myself addicted to it.  I have to myself stop exercising because my body does not recover fast enough to avoid an injury.  Remember I had to build myself back up from not being able to walk a block.  If I can do it so can you.  Start with 20 minutes a day and stay openminded and consistent.  I promise you if you stay consistent you will one day find yourself wanting to push yourself more.  You will find yourself craving the feeling you get.  It is a pathway hardwired into ourselves.  You just have to give yourself the opportunity to find and sync in with it.

Those that play sports get it.  Those that don't or are severely overweight may be intimidated.  It's ok.  You can start by yourself and work your way up.  Try taking a soccer ball by yourself to a grass field with headphones on.  Set a cone or book on the floor and practice trying to hit the cone or book.  Get some sun in the meantime and run jog when you want.  Alternately, find a wall and use your feet to bounce and kick the ball of the wall.  Practice short sprints.

The other thing people get wrong is not understanding the periodization of human recovery.