Like in many past new years I am trying to go to the gym more. When I’ve set this goal in the past it is about accomplishing something. Reaching out to some vague attainment that never gets realized. Instead, I get burnt out or distracted. It becomes harder to get back on the gym train because the goal feels further away and more impossible to reach.
Rather than focusing on the end, this year (actually since September of 2023), I am focusing on the going. Getting to the gym is the goal.
So many times my workout was dependent on the time I got out of bed, any delay felt like it set the dominos back putting me further behind the rest of my day. If I didn’t have time to complete my workout then why go at all? I have reframe this as, as long as I get to the gym I will workout until I need to be back to start my day, no matter how much or little gets done.
If I show up to the gym, I’ve done the work.
The big insight has been on the days I get out of bed late I am still able to get most of my workout in, and in some cases all of it. My body feels much better when I do something (even a little) then when I do nothing.
Reminds me of a story about my mom, who made it a goal to clean up all the rocks in our backyard in Las Vegas (there were a lot of rocks). Because they were rocks she couldn’t put too many in the garbage can at one time. Otherwise it would be too heavy for the garbage collector to pick it up. Every week she would fill up a plastic 1-gallon ice cream bucket and put in the in garbage. It took a while, but eventually the majority of the rocks were gone.