Beyond Bounds Blog

In the past fitness to me was easily measured - does my body look good, and can I run x miles at y speed? Getting into shape was just as simple: work out every other day - as I talked about in this post - and run the days between. But as I have been adventuring into the world of language learning, I realized that many of the same findings apply to fitness.

When you compartmentalize things in your life, they become work - unnatural and uncomfortable. They become chunks of time cut out of your day that must be completed, or else you will feel some kind of regret, shame, or just a sense of failure. This gives us pressure, and at the same time is far too unnatural.

If those things were a part of your life, rather than separate from whatever you call your life, it would be easier to continue. Fitness is often seen as a necessary evil - something difficult that takes will power and lots of self-discipline. This mindset is usually perpetuated by those who have no use for fitness, other than the superficial desire to look good in society’s eyes. These are those who live sedentary life-styles - rarely getting up other than to go to the bathroom. For these folks, being healthy is unnatural and quite awkward. Just getting up to go to the gym sucks up their will power, so gym sessions often only last a short while.

In a previous post I talked about motivations for language learning. Fitness is similar: if you want to really enjoy good lasting fitness, you have to have the proper motivations. “I want to be sexy / in good shape / healthy” are not good motivators. That is like saying “I want to be president someday” to motivate yourself to do your homework in high school. If your life speed is set at “sedentary” then unless your self-discipline is absolutely amazing (and most people aren’t very disciplined), then your motivations will always be short-lived. One day someone will call you fat and you’ll be motivated for 2 weeks to get a gym membership and work out, but you will soon fall back into your average everyday slump.

I have gone through many life pace phase changes over the last 5 years. In high school I was always on the move. If anyone wanted to do anything, I would almost always immediately say yes, especially if it meant getting out of the house. Soccer, basketball, swimming, going to the park, eating at some restaurant, going to a friends house - anything. At the same time, I was a computer game addict and spent all home time sitting on a computer. Guess what - I was in amazing shape, and going to the gym was just another reason to get out of the house. There was a balance to my life.

Last year I started my first job after college graduation. In the beginning I was still my very outgoing self, but eventually I sunk into the daily grind and life slowed down. In the beginning I was always pushing people to come eat lunch with me or play video games during breaks, but toward the end I would order in and watch a movie. In the beginning, going to the gym was something to look forward to everyday just to get out of the office, but at the end I stopped going altogether and just looked forward to going back home and relaxing. As the major part of my day was sedentary, it made it even harder for other parts of my day to be high energy.

Now, it is definitely my fault that I stopped doing lunch video gaming and eating out and going to the gym after work; it is mostly due to the unhappiness I felt at my job. The point is that when activity is not a part of your life, doing any activity will be a lot harder than when it is a normal everyday occurrence. The laws of physics apply to everything: an object in motion stays in motion. If you don’t move all day, moving in the afternoon to get to the gym will be extra difficult. If you do not need extra energy, your motivations will not be there to go get it.

Fitness must be a part of and necessary for the way you live your life. Recently I have gone from simply working out in the mornings and sitting around all day to working out in the morning then getting out 1-2x a day, everything suddenly has become easier and more sustainable. I play games at the local internet cafe and work at a cafe instead of home.

How can you make this change?

This does not mean that you should cut down your study time, nor do you have to quit your job like I did. Instead try to get off your feet at every opportunity. Say yes to more invites. Get used to getting out, even if it’s the weekday. Invite your friends to study together at the library instead of studying individually at home. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Walk around outside on your work breaks. Every little jolt in activity put into your day, makes fitness that much easier to reach and sustain. You’ll soon notice that going to the gym no longer takes so much will power, but instead becomes another excuse to get out of the house and live a fuller life.

Don’t make health a part of your daily grind. Make health a natural state of being.