There’s so much beneath the statement: “I want to exercise more”.“Why?”It’s rarely a simple answer. Often, people will respond with a common goal like lose weight, gain strength, or be healthy. This is typically just the tip of the iceberg.Digging deeper, lose weight might shift to “I want to feel more confident in my body.” Gain strength could expand to “I want to feel sturdier, stronger, and more capable in daily life.” Be healthy may evolve to “I want to feel more energy and not fall apart as I age.” This process often continues through multiple layers.
Another great one, Sam. Best takeaway: "My beliefs about desires, motivation, and goals may differ from yours. Explore for yourself to create your own playbook for when things are challenging."
Your fitness journey is different from my fitness journey is different from anyone else's fitness journey. There may be some overlap (maybe even significant!) -- but at the end of the day, each of us has a different end point we're working toward.
This piece really connected for me the conversation you and I have had about competition in the past -- and I'm paraphrasing here, so please correct me -- where it's easy to feel tension between wanting to be "the best" at something (whether that's a lifting PR, winning a race, whatever) vs. the desire to make your exercise intuitive. I'm realizing now, for me, competition and "pushing myself" is intuitive fitness. I get motivated by getting better -- so now I'll embrace that and really put the beat down on your in our combine!
100%. It's all about finding our own journey with it. And for some, that includes embracing competition with themselves or others. My sense is there are forms of this that are a deep inner drive that feels good in the moment and other ways it manifests more as social comparison or hoop jumping that leads to dissatisfaction/frustration.
Agree — but I think you only run into the latter when you don’t have a strong base of self-worth and confidence. If you’re competing to fulfill your inner drive, to test the limits of your own performance, that’s a much different picture than someone who is competing to prove their worth to others.
Like, you won’t get on the podium if you *want* to get on the podium.
Another great one, Sam. Best takeaway: "My beliefs about desires, motivation, and goals may differ from yours. Explore for yourself to create your own playbook for when things are challenging."
Your fitness journey is different from my fitness journey is different from anyone else's fitness journey. There may be some overlap (maybe even significant!) -- but at the end of the day, each of us has a different end point we're working toward.
This piece really connected for me the conversation you and I have had about competition in the past -- and I'm paraphrasing here, so please correct me -- where it's easy to feel tension between wanting to be "the best" at something (whether that's a lifting PR, winning a race, whatever) vs. the desire to make your exercise intuitive. I'm realizing now, for me, competition and "pushing myself" is intuitive fitness. I get motivated by getting better -- so now I'll embrace that and really put the beat down on your in our combine!
100%. It's all about finding our own journey with it. And for some, that includes embracing competition with themselves or others. My sense is there are forms of this that are a deep inner drive that feels good in the moment and other ways it manifests more as social comparison or hoop jumping that leads to dissatisfaction/frustration.
Agree — but I think you only run into the latter when you don’t have a strong base of self-worth and confidence. If you’re competing to fulfill your inner drive, to test the limits of your own performance, that’s a much different picture than someone who is competing to prove their worth to others.
Like, you won’t get on the podium if you *want* to get on the podium.
In the parking lot of my gym and just finished reading this. A great little piece with thoughts that I’ll take with me as I enter into this workout.
Thank you for this 👏🏾
Thanks Olu, perfect timing! Hope you had a great time at the gym