A member joined my gym once who admitted to me it was because she read something I wrote online and it resonated with her personally.
What she read was a post about trying to get in shape on your own, and why it doesn’t work out the way most people expect it to. But more specifically, it said:
“If you were going to get in shape on your own, you would have already done it by now.”
Most things I write, I never hear anyone talk about, but this one actually made someone come tell me directly that it’s what got her in the gym. I’ll never forget that moment, and in this article I’m going to elaborate on it.
IF YOU WERE GOING TO GET IN SHAPE ON YOUR OWN, YOU WOULD HAVE ALREADY DONE IT BY NOW.
Lets first talk about how this could potentially NOT be true (which is rare, but possible).
If you’re someone who has truly never tried anything whatsoever to improve your health and fitness – then this statement would not ring true for you. We’re talking – you’ve never signed up for any type of gym membership. You never tried to join a run club or a walking club. You’ve never signed up for a sports league – pickleball, tennis, kickball, etc.. You’ve never tried to adhere to some type of diet or “nutritional change.” Therefore, you’ve also never failed – or found what didn’t work.
If you’ve honestly been living your adult life with absolutely no regard to your health and fitness, you aren’t naturally active and you don’t worry whatsoever about what or how much you eat – then I can’t honestly say “You would have already done it by now” – because, well, you haven’t tried yet. So maybe you go try something, and it works… but for everyone else…
The Fitness Lie We’re Telling Ourselves
What I find that most people think is that they just haven’t found “the solution” yet that works for them, and they still think it exists, for free, by themselves. And although it might, it’s pretty uncommon.
People like to be told what to do, or at least to have a plan. They also like when there’s some type of system that holds you to doing the thing.
When you go to work, you’re expected at a certain time. Other people are probably expecting you to be there as well. Then you have specific things you need to do. You don’t just sit down at your chair and stare into the clouds expecting work to appear for you. Likely, you already know what you’re going to be working on. The whole system is designed to help keep you showing up and on task.
Though when people try to get in shape by themselves, there’s no system in place to make everything operate as it should:
- There’s no set time where someone else is expecting you.
- There’s no pre-determined plan for today (and next week, and next month).
- (And if there is a plan, how do you know how to continue progressing it over time, while staying engaged)
- There’s no accountability from others to show up again tomorrow.
So if we pause for a second and are completely honest with ourselves, if we were capable of losing the weight, getting stronger, and improving our fitness all on our own, with our own motivation + information from the internet – we would have already done it by now. You’ve tried the 24hr gym. You’ve tried the magazine diets. You tried working out with your brother-in-law. You tried running before work. You tried garage workouts.
None of it stuck.
It felt great early on when the motivation was high,…until it wasn’t.
You saw a little progress, and then it dwindled.
That’s where the client from the beginning of this post was. She had tried the 24hr gym after work, and it became too easy to just walk on the treadmill, or to even not go at all. She was honest with herself that she needed someone elses help.
A Coach.
She needed more than the help of herself, she needed a coach.
A coach gives you all of the things that you’re never able to give yourself. They also come with support, motivation, empathy, exercise knowledge, and accountability that you won’t find when trying it alone. And sure, a coach costs money, but so what – if this is something you really truly want, why keep kidding yourself and think you’re going to get it for free. What other things in life have you really really wanted (that were important to you) that came for free?
So if you’re still overweight or not in the shape you want to be in, it’s probably not for lack of trying. It’s probably because there’s one thing you haven’t tried, and that is investing in yourself and hiring a coach/gym that will do the things you can’t do for yourself.
To leave you with a bit more honesty, you’re afraid to spend the money. There, I said it.
We all want a deal. We love a discount. And even more, we love FREE. I do too. I love when I get that 10th punch card at the coffee shop and all of a sudden my $7 latte is FREE! Though sometimes we love free so much that we blind ourselves to the drastic benefits of actually paying for the thing. When it comes to your health and fitness, free rarely cuts it.
We’ll get 30 year mortgages on houses with more space than we need, and 5 year car notes for unnecessarily luxurious brand new vehicles, yet we’re still trying to get the thing that matters more than everything else for free – our Health.