I was talking with a friend yesterday who likes to train for marathons - but whenever he doesn’t have an upcoming race to train for, he tends to slack off and not go to the gym at all. He’s not alone, I’ve spoken with many people who prefer to have a firm, set competition goal on their calendar (ironman, marathon, whatever) and if they don’t, they don’t feel motivated. This applies not just to sports competitions but also to fat loss, general everyday health, as well as other domains of life such as career or relationship goals. You know you need to lose 20 pounds, but maybe you don’t feel the urgency of that unless you have an upcoming wedding with a tuxedo to fit into. You know you want to talk to your distant cousin more often, but if there’s no breaking news, what’s the difference if you wait until next week to call? Like Dr. Seuss says, everything in life is a great balancing act, and in this case, it’s about finding the right balance (for you) between The Journey & Your Goals. ‘The Journey’ is the big picture reality that there are, ultimately, no finish lines when it comes to your health, except the final one. (Which we can debate the finality of.) In other words, once you lose the 20 pounds, run the race, or make the phone call, you’re not done. Those may be milestones, but they are not endings. It’s more appropriate to view them as new beginnings. There is always another level, a next milestone, a new goal to work towards after you cross this one ... ... and you MUST learn to enjoy the process along the way - learn to LOVE DOING THE WORK ITSELF because the work IS THE GIFT - or else you will always ‘fall off the motivation wagon’. ‘Your Goals’ are also great to have as long as they follow a few parameters:
When you balance these things well you will: Have a solid perspective. So should you ‘train for a marathon’ or something similar? Yes - as long as that’s not your only reason for training. We all have deeper reasons, deeper ‘Whys’ for getting healthy. Those never go away whether there’s a race tomorrow or not. Men’s Group • LinkedIn • Instagram • X
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