Don’t be one of the Resolution People: hit the gym now
Gym-goers beware: the Resolution People are coming.
You know the ones. The people who overindulge during the holidays and make a commitment to start a new way of life on January 1.
They put energy and enthusiasm into their new or long-dormant gym membership, making a mess, fiddling on their phones while sitting on the equipment, talking more than exercising, taking the exact machines I want to use at the exact times I want them, and generally just being in the way.
I’m joking a little bit of course. I love to see and hear about people taking steps to improve their lives.
But it only really means something if you stick with it, right?
As is the custom, the herd enters my gym early in the new year. The month wears on and the herd is thinned as the quitters start piling up.
Unwilling to stick with a good behaviour long enough for it to become a habit, they start missing days, eating crappier food, and spending their nights in front of Netflix drinking beer.
By mid-February, the gym has returned to homeostasis.
What YouTube and gym quitters have in common
This is a bit off-topic, but I’m currently trying to develop a YouTube channel.
My goal is to get monetized within six months, so I’m looking a lot at other people’s channels that cover similar topics I do to see what works and what doesn’t, as well as the people who subscribe to them.
A lot of the people making the videos are already monetized and making bank every single day.
A lot of the commentors clearly wanted to be creators, but they quit almost immediately.
You can see where they started out, so full of life and enthusiasm. And then they just … stopped. After three or four videos, they just stopped.
These are the Resolution People of the creative world.
I’m not being judgmental: I was one of them.
I was a serial web site starter back in the day, but when it finally came time to lovingly maintain said web sites by creating and curating excellent content, I’d see something else shiny and leave them to wither and die.
The way I’m writing and building a business now — the drive, the consistency, the focus … had I applied that in the past, there’s no telling where I’d be.
Instead, I feel like I’m just getting started at age 41.
Whether it’s a creative pursuit or the gym (and your health is more important than anything), don’t make the mistake of waiting 10 or 20 years to really get going like I have.
Trust me, you’ll regret it.
At some point, you have to choose if you’re going to push through the resistance and discover the amazing things on the other side.
Nothing good comes easy
I’ve written a lot about quitting things on this account, whether it be alcohol, caffeine, or social media.
Undoubtedly, the hardest part of quitting a bad habit is the start.
Whether it’s physical or mental withdrawals, laziness, self-doubt, whatever — everything is telling you it would be easier to forget about it and just carry on as you were.
It’s just so comfortable that way.
Just as ending a bad habit is really tough at the start, starting a good one can be equally challenging.
I wrote recently about one of my favourite self improvement books, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, and the examples he gives of building momentum.
He asks readers to think back to riding a merry-go-round as a kid. Getting the metal structure going from inertia was tough, but once it started really spinning, you only had to give it an occasional kick here and there to keep it moving.
This is what Hardy calls it Big Mo. Once you feel it, once you have the wind at your back, everything that was once hard starts to feel easy.
Most people at the gym on Jan. 1 will be like the YouTubers who post three videos and then consign themselves to being a commentor.
They’ll realize it’s tough at the start and then decide the disappointment of not reaching their goals is more comfortable than showing up the next day, and then the day after that.
Make this time different
But what if, this time, you did push through? What if you actually chased your fitness goals for more than a month and reaped the benefits: the self-respect, the extra energy, the improved all-around health inside and out?
What if, just this year, you graduated from Resolution Person to Gym Community Member?
That’s what it is, really, a community.
If you go on a set schedule, you run into the same people every day. And their commitment can further fuel you to show up the next day too.
So how about this: forget your New Year’s Resolution, pack up your gym bag, and go … NOW!
Folks, thank you so much for reading this piece all the way to the end. If you found it helpful or inspiring, please take amoment to give it a few claps so others can find it!
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