Fitness is a Privilege, Not an Obligation

Humans live for an upward trajectory. We want to know that next year will be at least as good as this year. We need to feel that our kids are better off than we were. This drive for progress is a beautiful thing, but also a double-edged sword: in one sense, it's how we express hope; in another, it could simply be lifestyle and expectation inflation.

We should all strive for betterment in our lives. But the trick is to strive while also knowing that today you are enough.

I've had the privilege to focus on my health goals for the past few years. My kids have grown old enough and my job stable enough that I can seek out education to improve my sleep, diet, and exercise. But for me, this privilege can easily become an obligation. Rather than seeing exercise as the leisure activity that it is, I start to feel like a failure if I can't maintain my peak levels of fitness. So I wanted to write this post to myself, to remind myself of something I needed to hear:

You are enough. Whether you struggle to get up the stairs or are on a trajectory toward rippling Instagram-worthy abs, you are enough. You are enough today, and you were enough yesterday when you made the choices that got you to your current state.

Like everything in life, maintaining high levels of fitness comes at a cost. There are real opportunity costs in terms of your daily energy and mental capacity to take on other creative challenges. Right now, I have capacity to work, parent, and lift consistently. That's it. I don't get to take on side projects or have much of a social life. That's a tradeoff I believe in for now, but in the future, there might be other more meaningful ways to spend my time.

So just remember that if you do work out, it's always for you, for this day. You aren't letting anyone down by not showing up in that way tomorrow. It doesn't always add to the other parts of your life. And sometimes life just takes over, and other tasks simply can't wait.

I value the mental and physical growth that comes from dedicated training. But I want to train knowing that I'm enough. I want people to see my before and after pictures and think "I like how he's happy in both."