With the start of the new year, comes the new year resolutions. It has become a tradition in our culture to set resolutions-,often health and fitness related, at the commencement of a new year. Do you know the significance of today?
Today is January 15th, and statistics show that 95% of the people who have set new years resolutions have broken them already. Broken resolutions happen so often, that many of us disregard the practice all together.
Why are so many fitness resolutions broken? Why do so many people forgo making new years resolutions all together? In my opinion, the reason is that we are focused on the wrong thing.
Life is NOT a Journey
For so long, life has been understood to be a journey. In this analogy, life is a pilgrimage, with a certain destination and the purpose is to get to that end point. The current fitness trend follows this analogy. Everyone wants to begin their fitness journey in order to reach their goal and they want to get it done as quickly as possible. I too, had this philosophy on fitness.
The problem is, this way of thinking implies there is an end to an active lifestyle. What happens if and when you reach your goal? Does your journey come to an end? Are you now done with fitness? I think not. We can always grow and improve in this area.
Life is PLAYFUL
I came across an idea by Alan Watts that completely changed my thinking. He challenged us to think of life as an analogy to music or dancing. A pianist is said to PLAY the piano, not WORK the piano. If music was a journey- than the fastest musician would be the best. Crowds would come to hear the final cord of song. But that is not the case- the purpose of the music is in the playing. Alan states, "If the goal of dancing was to reach a certain spot on the floor, then obviously the fastest dancer would be the best. The point of dancing is the dance itself. And so it is with life."
As so it is with fitness.
Fitness is an EXPERIENCE
Moving forward I am replacing the term fitness journey with fitness experience. This is not just a play on words- this terms speaks to a healthy mindset. Thinking of fitness as a journey implies an end. I feel as though fitness is an experience that we should enjoy.
The purpose of fitness is not solely to lose weight or gain muscle- the point of fitness the experience itself. Find ways to move your body that brings joy to your life. Engage in activity that makes you feel great about yourself in the process. When we focus on only the end result, we miss the purpose of the experience. Sweat daily and you will reach your goals while enjoying the experience along the way.
If you are ready to begin your fitness experience, I would love to get your started. Set up a free consultation so you can begin enjoying all that a healthy lifestyle has to offer.
