Never regret a workout
Megan Miller
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Have you ever completed a workout and thought to yourself, “I wish I didn’t show up today”? My guess is that you haven’t. Most often, the hardest part of the workout is walking through the gym door. If in that moment of contemplation you can reinforce what you want most over what you want now, you will make it to the door. A person’s list of excuses can get lengthy, but I guarantee that if you take one hour in the gym to show up for yourself, you won’t ever regret it. Today we are going to explore what it means to show up for yourself through exercise, and the mindset shift and ripple effect it has.
Mindset shift
Our first mindset shift is subtle but yields a big impact. Rather than saying or thinking “I have to work out”, we instead choose to frame it as “I get to work out.” “I get to” is a powerful reminder about how capable our bodies are and nudges us towards gratitude for the ability to move our bodies.
The second mindset shift is formed each time you physically walk through the gym door and show up. Doing this over and over again begins to cement a habit in your life that becomes harder to break each time you do it. Imagine if working out were your job. Some days you might love going to work, and other days you might not want to go, but you have continued to show up anyway, because it’s just part of what you do. Just like when it comes to your workouts, the more you show up, the more confidence you will have in yourself and your ability to show up no matter what.
The human tendency is to avoid discomfort and choose the “easy” way out, but isn’t it true that we often suffer more by resisting the work? We almost always benefit by bucking up and doing the things we know we should be doing, even if it’s not easy. (Dare I say that we usually benefit especially when it’s not easy.) The work we avoid is usually the work we have to do to get to where we want to go. So here is your invitation to start talking to yourself about all the reasons why you need to show up for yourself. And if you still aren’t convinced, try swapping out the phrase “I have to” for “I get to”, and see what happens.
The ripple effect
As you continue to show up and keep those promises to yourself, you will start to notice the ripple effect in two areas of your life. Regular exercise and movement will ripple into other areas of your personal life such as sleep, stress, diet, and overall mindset. You may even start to notice that the people who you let into your “inner circle”, defined as the five people closest to you, can begin to shift. One of my favorite quotes is from Ed Mylett when he said, “You are the most qualified person to help the person you used to be.” At Rise, we are here to help and encourage each of our members to show up first for themselves, so that they can then show up for the people around them.
I can truly say I am batting 100% for never regretting a workout. If you are in the boat where getting to the gym feels like the hardest possible piece to your schedule, know it is never too late to course correct. This is a game of you vs. you. Like we discussed earlier, keeping the promise to yourself of going to the gym will have a compounding effect on your confidence in your ability to show up for yourself. Every time you show up, you add a deposit to your memory bank of how that made you feel. Little by little it adds up.
If I can encourage you to do one thing, embrace your workouts by proving to yourself that you can do hard things and that you are worth the hard work. Each day you show up for a workout, you are showing yourself that you can do this. I can promise you won’t regret showing up for yourself.
If you’d like to chat more about how we can help you build the confidence and strategies to show up for yourself, please reach out to our Rise team. We would love to chat with you and share our passion for helping people become their best selves.