For the first time in my life, one of my goals for the New Year was to start going to the gym. I was a little reluctant about making this a goal because it had been a while since I had physically stretched my body, and I knew I would get the typical backlash.
“Don’t worry…it’ll end in January.”
“I’m sure you said that last year.”
“Suuuuuuuuureeeee…”
I’ll admit it was hard to begin, and it still is hard to keep doing, because it requires taking time out of my daily naps which is so difficult. But something very strange happened as soon as I started going to the gym. I realized I actually liked it. Now, what I like about going to the gym is definitely not running or sweating or awkwardly avoiding eye-contact with my earphones in my ears (yes, I don’t have airpods. Fight me). I love how simple it is to make progress at the gym.
See, in life, it’s more difficult to know when you’ve become better at something. You’d often have to wait for a grade, or even some feedback that could be insincere. However, at the gym, it’s all about the numbers. Doing 51 sit ups is better than doing 50, and so if I’m able to just be better than I was yesterday…
I don’t know about you but there’s something about competing with and doing better than your past self that’s so encouraging and liberating. It pushes you to not only work harder, but to be proud of yourself when you do better…I think I might be addicted to that feeling. It feels amazing to go to the gym or track with the intent to do even a little better than I did yesterday. I could run the same number of laps, but do it in less time, or with shorter breaks, and that would be enough for me because I know that I made progress.
The gym makes progress simple. Don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t mean progress is easy but it feels like a breath of fresh air when you know exactly what you need to do to be better than you did before and you can motivate yourself to do it. I use it to train myself to push myself too. Honestly, I might be making my trips to the gym seem a lot more serious than they actually are, but these trips mean a lot more than getting my “summer body” or staying fit or whatever. I might have only started going but I can tell that, at least for now, the gym has meant a lot for my personal growth.
So, I encourage you all to find that thing that pushes you to do better than yesterday because practicing endurance and determination in the little things will help greatly when you need to do it in your personal lives, academic lives, relationships, etc. It might be just pushing yourself to go to the gym and it might be going the extra mile with your school work, but do what challenges you. Besides, “growth demands a temporary surrender of security” (Gail Sheehy).