Lost Gym Memberships & Lessons Learned
I don’t do this in my life in terms of personal relationships or professional responsibilities, but when it comes to personal leisure and personal development (improvement / restoration / sustenance), I have a habit of committing to things and then having a change of heart. I think a lot of people in North America generally have this problem, due to a variety of reasons.
We don’t recognize that our body is the temple of the soul. As a result we neglect our body and our issues of physical / biological health while being more concerned about the relational and sensational aspect of our life (psychology, emotions, politics, satisfying immediate physical needs). Furthermore, in our increasingly impulse-driven society, we are actually devolving as a society such that the entire North American culture is becoming less likely to commit to anything that doesn’t deliver fast results with minimum effort.
However, there’s a disconnect. Sometimes in the attempt to save investment of time, money or effort, we end up losing out in the end. A few examples of common “loss from the start” commitments for North Americans are diets, gym memberships, exercise equipment, doctor’s appointments, physical exams and check-ups (especially applicable to men). These are things that the average North American invests in financially or with an initial verbal commitment, but fails to maintain or integrate into one’s life. As a result, while the initial verbal commitment freed us from the guilt of not having done anything, the fact that we don’t actually do anything to follow up (long-term commitment) puts us back where we started, if not a few steps even further back.
So where’s this all coming from? Well today for the first time in at least 3 years, I went to the gym. My cousin, who’s a few years younger than me, persuaded me to join him and get a gym membership in order to get back into shape and maintain good health. The Watermania gym membership at Riverport in Richmond also offers free access to the swimming and sauna facilities, so that was an added perk. The annual membership costs $400. I had to think about it a few times because it’s easy enough to give that peice of plastic with your name on it and not thinking about your $400 investment until there’s only a short time left in your membership and you have to “make it worthwhile.” And I would know. Earlier this year, I registered at Fitness World (more expensive, no pool or sauna) for a five-month pass. How many times did I go to the gym in the five months? Not a single time. Zero. I can make excuses such as we were moving, and I was setting up my business, but the reality is that I made an impulse purchase at the time, and was not actually motivated enough to attend the gym until now.
It’s true, perhaps I would not have been motivated to sign up at Watermania now if I had not lost out on my previous membership, but the lesson I’ve learned is that you should think things through before you make a purchase, just as we think things through before making a life-altering commitment. I also learned, more importantly, that when you make a commitment of anything relating to your health, wellbeing, etc., you should try to get a partner, spouse, friend, sibling, or any loved one who can keep tabs on you and encourage you to stay on track. Having another person to push you through something that is good for you is extremely helpful and can sometimes make the difference between “just in time” or “too little, too late” in terms of preventing diseases, health problems, or wasting your $250 Fitness World membership.
