The psychological struggle of literal and metaphorical strength training

Yesterday I signed a contract for a personal trainer at the local gym. It’s $200 a month for one twenty-five minute session every week for a year.

Yes, that’s essentially $1000 paid for 8 hours worth of time with an expert instructor.

Some of you, maybe even most of you probably think I’m stupid. Trust me when I say I’ve already had my share of the “opportunity cost speech.”

Thing is, $1000 or $2000 is certainly worth better health. If I do the work and gain 10 pounds of lean muscle mass over the course of a year, that means I’ll be burning about 500 calories at rest per day by this time next year. That’s the equivalent of running 5 miles at my current pace.

Also, I truly think the more I pay, the more likely I am to take this seriously. If you’re only paying $10 a month for a standard gym membership, you’re not as likely to get up and do it if it’s not yet a habit as you’d be if you’re paying $200 a month.

Regardless of whether or not this was a bad decision on my part, that’s not what this post is about. Point is, I made a commitment yesterday to do this for the next 12 months. That’s what this post is about: commitment and discipline.

3 weeks or 3 months or 6 months from now when I’m sore almost every day, it’s going to be a really bad time for me to consider quitting this project. If I choose to do this now, I do it until the end. That’s commitment.

The act of repeatedly taking action regardless of how you feel or the consequences of such action is discipline. Discipline is what solidifies commitment and makes it real.

Seth says that discipline is obeying a rule you set for yourself when you are in a different mood than when you started it. I can’t think of a better definition than that.

I’m writing this now mainly for myself (and for social accountability) so that I stay mindful of the fact that if I fail at this project I know it won’t be because I lacked knowledge or ability or guidance, but because I chose not to put in the work. It’ll be because somewhere along the way I decided that I didn’t want this as much as I do now, and gave up.

It’s true you can do almost anything you set your mind to, but you also have to have the grit and discipline and persistence to see things through.

And that’s an internal battle, not an external one.