Mock It, but Wait Till You Try It; It Will Change Your Life

I would consider myself a gym veteran by now. I’ve been going for over half my life and working my fitness, embracing exercise and dieting for even longer. I’ve had many awesome successes and probably encountered double the failures, yet I cherish every moment, good and bad, and couldn’t be more appreciative. I believe everyone should include some health and fitness work in their lives, so I love it when people tell me about their newfound commitment to the gym, especially those closest to me.

Interestingly, it’s often the same individuals who used to rib me for prioritizing gym sessions over social outings or for even discussing it. I never really start the conversation about and definitely don’t open with my numbers. If it does come up, it would usually be someone asking me if I’m still going to gym. To which I will often joke that if you are asking me that, it probably isn’t working. Then the inevitable humerus prodding about my fitness routine and my bench press number will commence.

It usually comes with an undertone of mockery towards my dedication and why I push myself as hard as I do. My belief is that everyone should engage in fitness, irrespective of their physique, appearance or goals. Fitness isn’t all just about aesthetics. It is a byproduct of course, or can be the main benefit if that’s what you’re after. But really the main benefits lie in many real life aspects and quite simply make you healthier both physically and mentally.

There are things you learn about yourself during your fitness training and there are things you can teach yourself. You develop life skills within a controlled environment. Failure is part of the journey developing and strengthening your discipline and resilience needed in your day to day life. You can fail as much as you need in order to get back up and finally achieve that all important success.

Self development and accountability are probably two of the most underrated, yet vital lessons and skills you will pick up on your journey. There is a whole set of things you also have to do to go on to achieve more. And when you get into it, you almost always start wanting to achieve more.

These are the driving forces that propel me forward and inspire me to advocate for it and promote it to everyone I know, young and old, friend or foe. To be fair, it is more popular in today’s world than it was even five years ago. But it is also often wrongly portrayed as something that you need to do to conform to the new norm of a social media showcase rather than the transformative life tool it is.

So I absolutely love it when people I haven’t seen in a long time tell me that they’ve started going to the gym and that they love it. They start telling me how much it helps them, and how good they feel from it. They start to explain to me as if I‘ve been oblivious to all the benefits this entire time I’ve been doing it, how it is a focal point for them and how much they enjoy the actual training.

The tables have turned and I just chuckle to myself. I don’t care to be right. What truly matters is that other people are experiencing the same enriching rewards as I am, especially when they are people who are close to me and that I care for.