THIS IS WHY THE GYM CAR PARK IS SO EMPTY - and it isn’t even the end of January!
If you’re wondering why the gym car park has gone from overflowing, with cars parked up on the kerbs only three weeks ago, to now having spaces available whatever time of day you get there, this is why:
People don’t understand what being healthy really is!
It’s the same pattern every January, and through the rest of the year, just not at as large a scale or with as much outside attention on it. The new year approaches and people naturally start to think about what they want it to bring them. They set resolutions and goals for the coming twelve months, driven and determined it’s going to happen for them, this time.
January the 1st comes around and for many, whose goals are ‘to get healthy’, or a similar version which might go something like ‘lose a stone’ or ‘get fit’, they go all in, geared up to stick to their resolutions and smash their goals.
It’s brilliant that motivation is high and you get clear about what it is you’d like to achieve, but there’s a very important missing piece - understanding what being healthy really means. Without this, you’re not setting the right goals or creating a plan for success.
You think that being healthy means going to the gym or being on a diet. You don’t broaden it any further than that. You don’t think about all of the other things that affect the way you feel every day. You also want the results fast, like before the end of January fast. Hence why there are free spaces in every gym car park around the country right now.
You want immediate results to give you what you think is the answer to feeling crappy and not liking yourself very much. You think working out and/or losing weight will fix this and because you’ve set the goal and gotten motivated to start, you expect the results quickly. So, you go all in, restricting and pushing yourself, eagerly waiting to feel better and happy.
Being healthy is everywhere you look, so you feel like it’s time you did it too; it’s more than just a trending TikTok. So you join the local gym, set your alarm early four mornings a week, and maybe you’ll even go on Saturday too. Your body aches. It hurts to sit on the toilet and walk down the stairs. You’re collapsing into bed at night, dreading the 6 am wake-up call, trying to justify to yourself that maybe this healthy living thing isn’t for you.
By the 31st of January, you’ve thrown the towel in. It’s impossible to get healthy. It hurts too much. You don’t have time. You feel worse, not better.
Being healthy doesn’t come because you’ve gone to the gym a few times a week for three weeks. Nor does it come from only going to the gym for three months. You will feel better from it and there’s no question about the positive benefits you’ll be reaping, both mentally and physically, but going to the gym alone isn’t what being healthy is about.
Health is about so much more than working out. There are some fundamental pillars of health that if we all embed into our habits and routines we’d be feeling pretty good, and be protecting ourselves from many potential illnesses and diseases. But many other things also contribute to a healthy life. What these are, are unique to you: they depend on how you feel, what’s going on at this particular stage of your life, and the things impacting how you live and feel. I like to refer to it as a combination of tools from your personal wellness toolkit.
Only by understanding what you most need and why, and taking a holistic view, can you start to focus on embedding habits into your daily routines and lifestyle to build good, strong health. If this includes going to the gym to work out, great. You don’t build a successful habit by diving into it and punishing yourself with great big workouts four times a week from the off!
Ready to design your own wellness toolbox?
If you’re ready to create habits that help you to feel in control and build your self-belief so you can feel confident and motivated, book a free 30 minute call to find out whether our coaching programmes can support you.
