I bought a Peloton last year. 🚴We were all quarantined due to COVID. I had seen the ads, everyone I knew had one, and I thought it would help me move more.
And at first, it did. It was novel, it was exciting. 😍
But after a while, it started to wear off. IT wasn’t new anymore. All of my old blocks and excuses saying “I don’t have the time for a stationary bike,” “I am bored with the repetition of riding a bike,” “this isn’t really helping me,” “the dang bike shoes are so hard to clip in and out,” and more — started to pop up again. I went from using it every day to a few times a week to maybe once a week.
So many of us, when we think about making a change, the first thing we do is look for something to buy or to do differently. We decide we need to stop eating junk food, get a Peloton, get a gym membership, buy new sneakers, get a meal service plan. And it goes great at first, and then stops going as well, and then we end up feeling frustrated at ourselves for not having “willpower” or “dedication.”
But really, we’re just trying to change the wrong thing. 🙅
Sneakers and meal plans and Fitbits are all environments. They’re external, they’re outside of us. They seem like the things controlling us. “I can’t work out because I don’t have the right sneakers!”, but really, they’re the least powerful factor. When you only change your environment, the changes don’t last because you’re still stuck in the same beliefs.
If you want to change, you need to take a look at your beliefs. Your spiritual connection to your health and your fitness. You need to go deeper and see what’s blocking you. You need to get clear on your values.
For me, that meant taking a deep deep look at my time and my priorities. I’m sixty and I realized that right now, my health is the biggest priority of my life. That hasn’t always been true, but right now it is. I had to face the things that were blocking me…time management, seeking constant pleasure over the pain of physical exertion and feeling like exercise is a nuisance in my day…and deal with them.
Then — and only then — did I start riding my Peloton regularly. Without hesitation. Without struggle. 💯
Here’s a great journaling exercise:
Write down what change you want to make, and then instead of focusing on what you need to DO or BUY differently, can you explore what beliefs and values are holding you back? What is stuck and needs to shift? What are you getting from these beliefs? What might you get from shifting them?
That’s where the true change happens. 🌺
