« Fitness is a lifestyle », yes, we all know that. What is important here is the reason why you have a certain lifestyle, because the answer to that question may go a little deeper than a sixpack and is definitely based on a feeling. Like everything else we do, fitness is fueled by an emotional reason. Without feeling, nothing really matters. So without that reason, we won’t have the strengh to keep going, because dicipline is just one part of being consistent. If you really want to commit to something, you need a good reason, right? That good reason is mostly easy to define but hard to really understand. Let me make an example:
« Hi, I am Jacob and I have the goal to work out three times a week for at least one hour because I know how beneficial it is for my health and wellbeing. Everything went very well for the first two weeks but now, there is just so much going on and I can’t find the time, I am always tired after work and…»
This might not be exactly your situation here, but if your goal is to get more into fitness, there is a good chance that you struggle with the same issue: Jacobs’ reasons are not emotional, they are completely rational.
They are what he knows is important, but don’t really feel important to him. Not yet.
The most important lesson here is to understand how much emotion-driven we are, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because things that are good for you will feel good to you, when you start to understand your emotional reason. As we know, emotions occur over time so we actually need to dive into something a little bit to start feel things. And these feelings will start to clarify the reason why you do something and give you motivation.
So the first step is always to start doing. And when you do it, be in the moment. Take it all in. Make space for that feeling. Because that feeling is like a reward, and over time, you will want to feel it again. This is how a habits are built. Your brain gives your body a signal to do something because it wants that reward again (also called dopamine).
This is why making good decisions is so hard. You only really feel the emotional benefit after you start, not before.
This is the effect of: «Wow I actually didn’t feel like working out today but I did it anyways and I feel great now ».
If you want to get that body, you need to do it for the feeling. Everything. Your nutrition, your workouts, runs. Whatever it is, it must feel good to you. There is a good posibility that you will feel a lot of pain at the beginning because you’re not used to it. This is where you need to keep going without that emotional fuel. But after some time, pain will start to feel good, like a magic potion that makes you stronger and more resilient, every time a little bit more.
Fitness is learning to enjoy the pain, building a deeper connection with the body, strengthen the mind and focusing on ourselves.
It’s all about the feeling, the body shape you see is just a result of that feeling, being practiced over a long time.
Looks aren’t emotional enough to be a good reason. Looking hot won’t last, feeling hot will. So stop looking and start feeling.
Don’t get me wrong, how your body looks will always play a role in your life, because our sight just happens to be the one sense we trust the most. If we see something, we believe it. But if you hear or feel something weird you’re much more likely to think it’s not real or you just heard it wrong. So what I am trying to say is that it’s good and not toxic at all if you track your changes by looking at your body. You can take pictures from time to time and also see the change. This can be very motivating. It’s just important to know that the looks aren’t the main goal, it’s always the feeling. The look is just a nice and beautiful side effect of that feeling and a good way to see what you’ve been working on, besides the feeling.
This is the mindset I’ve developed in my fitness journey. For a long time, fitness was something I did merely for the looks, because I tried to compensate the insecurities I had regarding my body, my sexuality and even my work. I needed people to see that I look hot, that I am attractive and that I have a special skill. The reason why we struggle with that topic is mostly because of the insecurities we carry with ourselves. We get influenced by everything we see on social media and these informations partly, but inevitably shape our believe system.
We are so distracted from what we see that we forget how to feel. It’s time to close our eyes and put feeling first.
This here is the foundation of a fitness mentality. This is what you will never find on any website or in any program or diet. This is something you have to find in yourself.