Staying fit is one of the best ways to take care of your health. But for most people, life has never been busier and schedules have never been fuller. Too often, people find that their health and fitness ends up taking a back seat.

Although getting fit can seem like a large investment of time, it is essential not only for health but also for emotional well-being. Investing the energy to get fit gives you higher levels of energy in your day-to-day life.

We understand how challenging it can be to try to juggle the demands of work, family and fitness, so here are three ways that can help you stay fit and motivated.

1. Set achievable yet challenging goals

There’s nothing more satisfying than setting a goal for yourself and meeting or exceeding it. Clear goals are one of the best ways to motivate yourself, ensuring that you stay on track. What sort of goals you should set depends completely on your lifestyle and where you want to get to. The key is to create goals that are both challenging and achievable at the same time, and to measure your progress towards them religiously.

2. Try fitness tracking

Fitness tracking apps and devices such as Fitbit and the Nike+ training club are becoming incredibly popular. They can track almost any aspect of your workout, including speed, distance, time and heart rate. A big part of their appeal is the data they provide. Fitness trackers can motivate you by helping you see in detail how you are progressing towards your goals. Best of all, fitness trackers and apps are inherently social. Sharing your workouts with your friends and seeing their progress as well can be very helpful to motivate you towards your fitness goals. And if you’re into the competitive aspect, many people enjoy competitions between groups of friends through fitness trackers and apps.

3. Schedule a regular workout time

It can be very difficult to make sure you do anything on a regular basis unless you build it into a consistent schedule. Relying on willpower to get things done is uncertain and very hard work; but if you make your workouts a routine, you have to make much less effort to get things done, and your chances of achieving your goals are much higher.

There is no magic formula to becoming fit that works for everyone, but these three ways to stay motivated can be extremely powerful. We suggest you give them a go and see what works for you.