Take a moment and make a list of your favorite things to do in your free time. If a form or two of exercise get included, consider yourself blessed.

If one didn't, however, that doesn't mean you're cursed. It just means you need to adopt a workingman's mindset to the "job": that the task needs to get done about five times a week and it needs to be done properly.For when exercise gets done properly (regardless of how you feel about it), you enhance not only your physical health, but also your mental state. A productive and invigorating workout puts a bounce in your step and a smile on your face.Moreover, it creates a greater patience in your dealings with others, and all of this lasts well past that last hard effort.What can top that?Some exercise doesn't elicit that effect, however, because it gets done the way young children draw in coloring books: without much of a plan in a less-than-focused fashion, although an attempt is made to do what's considered right and stay within the lines.To wit, does the following scenario characterize the way in which you go about exercise? You choose the treadmill at the health club simply because it's the only aerobic machine currently available. You set it at a speed you know you can handle for 30 minutes because you always do 30 minutes of cardio and find it easier to endure aerobic exercise if you stay at a steady pace.While you walk, you turn your attention elsewhere: first to the sitcom on the big-screen TV and then to making a mental list of what you'll need to get at the grocery store tomorrow.In short, do you find yourself thinking about doing anything else except the exercise you're doing in an attempt to make the time pass quickly? Though disassociating from the workout can't hurt your health, it certainly hurts the prospects of lifetime exercise.Too often, disassociation produces half-hearted workouts that lead to what I call exercise ennui, an overall weariness with the whole workout process. Such a mental state makes it really easy to give up on going to the health club or even engaging in exercise altogether.So what's the antidote for exercise ennui?To associate rather than disassociate during workouts. In other words, to have your mind fully engaged in the activity. If you do that, then you'll get more done (possibly in less time) and feel more satisfied afterward.You can associate during exercise whether it appeared first, fifteenth, or not all on your list of favorite things to do in your free time. All you need to do is create the proper frame of mind.You do that by flooding your mind with the right thoughts.If you're skeptical, consider the Buddhist saying: "Right thoughts, right mind, right actions," as well as how I attempt to accomplish that.Although exercise gives a religion-like structure to my life, there are times when I don't really feel like working out. It could be because I'm physically tired at the beginning of a before-school weightlifting workout that comes less than 12 hours after a long and hard bicycle ride. Or it could be simply because my enthusiasm is low for that day's ride.Especially when the latter is the case, I take a moment, close my eyes, and think about a bicycling buddy of mine. He's a doctor who still works 80-hour weeks and used to somehow find the time - and the energy and the motivation and the absolutely insane drive - to set an amateur world record on the track, win a masters national championship on the road, and finish first in more state championship races than I could ever remember.Yet now he rides no more.He did not lose his desire. He lost something else: control of his heart.It will sometimes suddenly beat dangerously rapidly - more than 200 beats per minute- mostly when he's engaged in aerobic exercise. Multiple operations, numerous drugs, changes in diet, and all sorts of other lifestyle changes have done nothing to improve the situation.So when I feel less-than-motivated to throw my leg over the top tube and hop atop the saddle, I take a few moments to imagine how supercharged my buddy Neal would feel if he could do the same - if only for one more day.It works every time. I begin a bit guiltily but gratefully, and that gratitude motivates me to give the maximum effort my legs can muster up on that day. Knowing I'm doing all I can in the moment eliminates my guilt and increases my gratitude.Exponentially.So much so that after the ride, I have a smile on my face, a bounce in my step, more empathy for others, and more patience with myself. And those good vibes can often continue until the end of the day.But associating with positive thoughts before exercise isn't the only way to maximize your effort. Next week's column will offer other ways.