Why I love the gym
When I joined Segment back in January, I got a rundown of our benefits — including a free membership at the next door gym. In the past, I hadn’t really given going to the gym much thought, and call me silly, but I had always naively thought
I have lots of fun geeking out on my computer, feel pretty good, and am content with my looks… so why exercise?
Thus, I initially dismissed the idea of going to the gym. Months went by at the office, and on my way in and out, I had seen a coworker come from or go to the gym at least once per week. A few weeks ago, I gave it another thought.
Person X is smart, respectable, has lots of work to do, and seems happy. Surely, he can’t just be working out just for the looks… Fine, I’ll try it.
I went to the gym. I didn’t know what to do. I met a few people who showed me a few exercises. I struggled… and struggled… and struggled. I could not curl a mere 5 pound dumbbell while everyone around me seemed to have no problem with much higher amounts, and this was discouraging. Thankfully, the folks I met there were awfully encouraging. They told me about anomalies where they’ve seen people go from smaller than me to bigger than them. So, I decided to come back the next day, practice the same old exercises, try a couple new routines, and repeat.
The results were nearly identical for the first couple days, but within a few weeks, I’ve made my way from 5 to 8 to 10 and now to a whopping 12.5 pound dumbbell. That said, after continuing to see everyone around me lift far more than that and many pride their looks in the mirror, I couldn’t help but ask myself
Why do I come back? Why do I enjoy working out?
Eventually, it hit me. The real reason I continue to work out even though my progress is slow is the positive feedback loop. Every time I go to the gym, I see progress. Progress is rewarding. It boosts my confidence, and that’s enough to keep me exercising. The best thing about confidence is that it’s not isolated to a specific task — it’s a state of mind. The immense confidence I gain from my trivial progress at the gym is applicable to my work, writing, conversations, and much more. Altogether, it drives happiness.
By this point, you may be thinking
Confidence? I could use some of that. Should I be at the gym?
Alike the health benefits of going to the gym that I haven’t touched on (mostly because it’s not “why I love the gym”), there are countless other ways that you can boost your confidence. In fact, what you do or feel proud of — whether it’s how fast you can type or how well you score on an assignment — doesn’t matter in the least. What matters is that you’ve crafted a positive feedback loop around your activity of choice.
One “lifehack” I like to use is not setting goals. It’s worked quite well.
- I never dreamed of leading a (small) engineering team “by the age of 15”.
- I never dreamed of lifting 12.5 pounds.
Instead, I’ve decided that if I want to do something, I’ll just start and keep at it systematically. Whenever you set a goal, you’re behind from the start, but when you follow a system, you’re always growing. Most people also set goals when they start something that they know very little about (e.g. me with exercise). This is an extremely deterministic approach in a world of unknown factors. However, systems are unbounded so you’re free to adapt them as you progress. In the end, quotas are unimportant but growth is.
Try it out. See what happens.
PS: If the widely discussed dilemma of goals vs. systems interests you, I highly recommend the book “How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big”, where Dilbert-creator Scott Adams’ discusses this topic in much more detail through a collection of entertaining anecdotes.
