Partially thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, exercise equipment for the home has been flying off the shelves. Some of the more popular items (if you can afford them) are the Peloton bike or treadmill, the Mirror home workout system and the Tonal smart home gym.
Two things that separate the above three from their competition is the virtual personal training/encouragement that comes with them plus an additional monthly fee. They are often marketed as a way to save money over a gym membership, but do they?
A high percentage of people who join gyms stop going to them after a few months and I would expect the use of these products to have a similar arc. So, if you are like the majority of people, these machines will end up costing you more since most gym memberships do not require the same upfront costs that all of these do.
People are always looking for ways to buy things that will solve their problems – in this case the need for exercise. I have a friend who saw the dismay in my face when he told me he had two separate gym memberships. Before I could ask why he had two gym memberships, he quickly said “and I’m going to join a third if I don’t start seeing results soon!”
Buying solutions rarely work out as planned, because (in this case) the problem is not a lack of the proper equipment or gyms. The problem is the common approaches most people use in their attempts to solve this type of problem.
That’s why I would recommend investing in Better Habits over all of the above options. You see, investing in the others may serve you well initially/superficially, but they will also subtly eat away at your self-esteem. You start to become dependent on outside forces to get you moving in the right direction.
Why not invest in yourself and develop Better Habits? Most people have failed at creating Better Habits in the past and that’s often why they look outside themselves for help in solving their problems.
The problem was not you, but the way you attempted to build Better Habits. Most people try to do too much too soon and end up failing. It’s the feeling of failure that stays with you rather than the habits you were trying to build.
Instead, start small and you will likely feel good about yourself and want to do more. In fact, the smaller the better when it comes to building Better Habits.
The two biggest factors in successfully forming Better Habits are attaching the activity to something you already regularly do and making the action small enough to beat the inertia that keeps you from starting.
If you want to get in better physical shape, start by doing one push-up immediately after you get out of bed in the morning. Once you have success with that for a few days, add something like walking across the street after dinner. If you are like most people that feeling of success will spur you to do even more and before you know it you will have developed some Better Habits that almost effortlessly help you achieve your goals.
The success you have in creating these Better Habits make any future attempts at creating Better Habits even easier than the ones before. Plus, you can save the thousands of dollars by not buying any of those fancy workout systems and use that money to go on a trip or adventure instead.
Best of all, when you take that trip your Better Habits will automatically come with you, unlike any of those workout systems. Because your Better Habits are with you, it is likely that you won’t fall behind and have to catch-up when you get back, like you would if you were missing your equipment and the artificial inspiration you were relying on.
There’s no better time than the present to start creating a better version of yourself, so why not give this a go today?
You can follow Sam on Twitter @SuperTaoInc
POSTED IN THE MIND SIDE BLOG
