YOU: Do you like your gym?
ME: The best part of it is that it’s 2 minutes away.
I can leave my house at 9.20 for a 9.30 class.
If it was 5 minutes further, I just wouldn’t get there.
I totally believed this story.
And it kept me at a gym I really didn’t enjoy for two years.
I liked the classes, but the environment was toxic.
Much inner self-coaching occurred when I was supposed to be visualizing a tight butt.
I believed it was true that I had exactly one hour and ten minutes for my workout.
I repeated this so often that it became a fact in my mind.
Maybe it was true a few years ago, when I had a gang of rowdy toddlers to take care of.
But uh-uh. I had full-time help then,
and I could have hung out at the gym all day if I wanted to.
Maybe I once read that your gym should be close to home to make sure you go.
Maybe that’s true for most people.
But conventional wisdom rarely applies. I’m very oppositional.
For many years, I’ve yearned to experiment with yoga as my daily practice.
But there was no yoga studio within five minutes drive.
So, stuck in my story, I couldn’t fulfill this desire.
Sometimes, all it takes is one simple comment to expose the lie in your story.
My sister told me a yoga studio had opened about 15 minutes from my house.
She told me her friend goes every day.
I said ‘it’s too far’ and she said
‘It really isn’t’
That’s all it took.
She questioned my story.
Showed me it wasn’t a fact. Just a thought.
And as she said it, I laughed at myself.
I drive my daughter to gymnastics at that exact location.
I’m considering a karate dojo for my son right there too.
It takes a few minutes to drive there, and I never think about it.
The real truth is:
I’m completely in charge of what I do during the day.
I get to decide if driving 15 minutes to a workout that I love is worth it.
I decided to experiment.
I signed up for 3 months.
I schedule the class I like best every day
And I plan my day around it.
Here’s what I have found:
I get there most days.
It takes much more time than the gym.
And
I do have the extra time
If I choose to have it.
And I do.
Because being healthy and happy are necessary for me to do my work in the world.
And because I’m worth it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.