Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

Motivation and behavioral sustainability scientist and author of No Sweat!

Michelle Segar, PhD, MPH, motivation scientist and author of top-selling “No Sweat! How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness”(AMACOM 2015), is Director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center (SHARP) at the University of Michigan, and Chair of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan’s Communications Committee. Her 360-degree perspective is informed by more than two decades of award-winning research, individual fitness and self-care coaching, and consulting, uniquely positioning her to help organizations understand and leverage the emotional drivers and internal rewards of consumers’ health decisions.

Pioneering new approaches to sustainable behavior change in the fitness, health care, and wellness arenas, Segar’s evidence-based ideas about what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors is changing the conversation across fields. She consults with global organizations on these issues and delivers keynotes and sustainable behavior change trainings.

Author Website

Philosopher's Notes on Michelle Segar, Ph.D.'s Books

LockedPhilosopher's Notes

No Sweat

by Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

Dr. Michelle Segar is the world’s leading authority on what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors. As you’d imagine, Dr. Segar has some *really* powerful ideas on, as the sub-title suggests, “How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness.” Big Ideas we explore include the importance of meaning, moving exercise from a chore to a gift and embracing a learning mindset.

Quotes by Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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If you want to change your relationship with being physically active, the starting place is understanding and changing your Meaning of it.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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Other research agrees: Move in ways that feel good to you, whatever that means, and you’ll be more physically active over time.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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Let me repeat this because it’s really important: Changing your personal Meaning of exercise and physical activity from a chore into a gift will transform your relationship with movement.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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Bottom line: If you don’t mindfully give yourself Permission to prioritize time for your own self-care, no one else will.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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When a self-care behavior becomes a daily need, we sustain it. We prioritize it in our lives much more easily, because it helps us with being who we are by fueling what matters most to us. Because—and here comes my mantra again—what sustains us, we sustain.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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Self-criticisms are effective and virtually immediate de-motivators. Criticizing ourselves when we fail to meet our plans or a standard in some way is just about the worst way for us to motivate ourselves to improve and do better next time.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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In fact, missing a planned physical activity and also seeing the connections between not moving and how you feel and function is perhaps the strongest motivator for consistency and sustainability that I have identified through my work with clients...

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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Consider that your goal is the ongoing pursuit of a lifetime of consistent physical movement and self-care... Your goal is lifelong behavior change, and that’s what we want to keep in mind—always.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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There’s only one basic instruction: Take any and every opportunity to move, in any way possible, at whatever speed you like, for any amount of time. Do what makes you feel good; stop doing what makes you feel bad.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.

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My interdisciplinary research challenges the status quo within the health promotion and healthcare industries by showing that logical rewards like ‘health’ and ‘weight loss’ do not motivate people to sustain health-related behavior as well as immediate and emotional rewards such as ‘well-being.

Michelle Segar, Ph.D.