I was just talking with a brand new client yesterday... when they said what I hear more often than not in new client signups:
"I had finally just had enough. It was time to start now."
To give this context... every new member of my gym goes through what we call a "No Sweat Intro." Some are more formal than others. Others are... old clients and friends coming back after life set them back a couple steps.
And that's what our gym is about: not judging anyone for life hitting and someone deciding their step back had to be their health or the gym. We don't judge. Our mission is just to get them BACK moving. Whether it's with us or someone else.
But in this conversation, right after asking them what their goals are, I always ask "why now?"
This can throw people off, because 1) it's direct and 2) some of them know I was military intelligence. So they then begin to wonder if they're being interrogated.
But they're not.
What's happening is that I want to know the WHY. The WHY is what keeps them going. Everything else is details, mechanics, procedure. You know... my job.
Their job (your job) is to show up and do the thing. And to do that, you need to know why.
It doesn't have to be some complex Batman-avenging-his parents-by-training-on-a-mountain backstory.
It's often "I turned 40" or "I want to inspire my kids" or "I was walking up ONE flight of stairs and got winded and I don't want to feel that way anymore."
But what do all of these have in common?
Well, ONE... none of them start by being an athlete. They all start with no experience, or experience long enough ago that it's giving them no distinct advantage. They are all on level playing ground. They all come into train with me and leave in varying states of sweaty, tired, or sore... but ALL of them leave accomplished. Whether it was their first or fifth workout that week, a win's a win. And none of the rest of the members have accomplished more or less than the other in sheer terms of doing the thing. Some lifted more or ran faster, but according to their abilities.
And TWO, every last one of them has been thinking about this for a WHILE, and has expressed that they wished they had started sooner, so that they were months or years into their progress, and not day one.
Which leads to the moral of this story. The crowning message. The big point.
It does NOT matter when your DAY ONE starts. It matters that right now, this moment, you decided when it stops being a ONE DAY and becomes a DAY ONE. Every last person who has trained with me has had a DAY ONE. So no matter how small, boring, routine, or easy your DAY ONE is, it is INFINITELY stronger than ONE DAY. Practical steps beat hypothetical futures every single time in this gym.
Don't let fear of starting push that ONE DAY another day down the road.
--Coach Cap
Comments