I have been espousing the need to take action, even if it is one action. The action has to be focused on getting you to a better version of yourself, and that is it.
The one thing I did per day was getting myself back into the gym starting in May 2016. This was not a casual tour on the elliptical for a 15 minute window, nor was the intention really focused on yoga classes for increased mindfulness and flexibility.
I found some online resources leading up to May of that year that had completely updated my thinking around the value of getting back into the gym. The number one thing I adopted as a mindset was the need for consistency. I also adopted the mindset that I needed to lift heavy weights, as heavy as possible without injury to myself.
I managed to hit the gym for well over 100 days straight like it was my job, and many times I was in there before 6am. As schedules morphed and changed later in that year, my ability to hit the gym so early was altered primarily due to familial commitments. However, I still managed to make the gym the one thing per day that I did.
August that year, I found myself getting some compliments from folks that had not seen me in awhile, and for the first time I began to notice that things were outwardly changing. What I began to see realized outwardly, was something that had been promised back in March and April when I was digging into fitness approaches that I was too lazy to adopt.
What were these men in March of 2016 espousing as the number one benefit of lifting heavy weights?
- Increased strength?
- Greater bone density?
- Greater cardiovascular health?
- Lower blood pressure?
- Bigger muscles?
- Lower fat?
- More energy?
None of these were the number one thing mentioned, although nearly all of them were hit upon. At the time I did NOT believe the biggest reason that was being stressed to get my you-know-what into the gym…
The number one benefit was and remains this:
The mental resilience and increased mental fitness.
For the first time in many years, I was now doing something firstly for myself with no equivocation or negotiation with anyone in my life. I was now building upon a daily promise and cadence that I had made to myself. Things began to snowball after about 4 months. Let me be clear – the first four months were very hard.
I knew going into the gym for the first time in May that I was going to be incredibly uneven from day to day, and the mental chatter to stop would be loud and incredibly attractive.
I knew that my body was going to be very, very sore for weeks as I tore it apart.
I knew that my mind was going to be deadened for the first few weeks due to sheer exhaustion most days.
I knew that my day to day results were not the important thing, it was the daily grind of getting in there, and doing my best, that day, that did matter.
I knew that I could rediscover the joy from a strong showing in the gym regardless of personal bests – provided the effort was put forward.
I knew that I was in a fight with a weakened version of my former self for supremacy.
I knew my future was on the line, so yes – I put tons of pressure on myself to get into that gym regardless of how I was doing that day.
What I did not know was how truly sore, how truly weak both in body and mind, and how hard it was going to be to pull off. I made sure that none of that mattered. One thing a day for nearly six months, just hit the gym.
So when I came up for air – later in that summer, I realized that another truth that had been shared online by these iron willed men. That your outward body will reflect the inner convictions and disciplines adopted months earlier. Outward success is a lagging indicator of inner success.
I believe the opposite to be true too.
The point is not to pass judgement on a particular body type, injury history, or workout routine. We have all been injured and operating in a degraded state from time to time. It happens.
The real point of the post today is that daily actions are not obvious for months and this need for immediate results and feedback are things to be mastered. Daily action, even if it is one thing, will begin to take on a life of its own. For me, it took nearly a year before I was open to taking onboard additional habit development, and relaxing on the need to make the gym every day.
You can transform your life with just one thing per day. If it is the same thing per day – you can benefit from that singular focus in an ever more compounded manner – much like interest accumulated over a lifetime on your savings.
Once you have established the trust in yourself to do that one thing per day, then you can move onto two things per day if you are up for it. At the moment, I am sitting at 4 habits per day as a target with my visit to my gym less than a mile still being one of them.
For me the physical and mental benefits from lifting and now cardio at the gym have enabled me to scale into many other endeavors. The increase in mental acuity, the need to have a balanced diet, the need for quality sleep, the higher energy, and increasingly resilient daily vibe are all things that have come as a result of this one daily action.
Clearly, I’m a fan of the gym, although it may not make the most sense for you.
What is the daily thing you are going for today?? What about tomorrow?