Fitness Culture Is Popular Because It Is Easy To Achieve The First Successes
It’s a good brick to overall success, even if it’s way harder in other life areas.
According to Wikipedia, mass participation and commercialization of fitness began just after World War II and its first huge peak was in the ’70s and ‘80’s thanks to famous publications.
Later on, mass media influenced the shape of an ideal body image and sold it to the masses. Since the popularization of TV, the commercials with people with ideal bodies were all over the place. It was of course the stereotype of the thin shaped woman and muscular man strongly connected to success in life.
At least where I live — in Poland, the real boom was in the 21st century, around 2010. It progressed to a kind of obsession with a fit lifestyle as social media became more popular. Instagram has become the realm of “fit lifestyle” and maintained the stereotype created by television.
These days everything calms down a bit. Thanks to the popularization, people are more aware of their bodies-more people exercise or keep a healthy diet. Somehow it’s an overall gain out of the toxic stereotype.
But besides all this, I see the whole psychology behind the “Fitness Boom” connected to today’s rat race and the urge to “be successful.”
Life is insanely competitive these days
It’s not easy to achieve anything significant in life. These days competition is everywhere because an enormous number of people want to be “number 1”, that is to say — entrepreneur. As a result, everybody is working on low margins, and it’s harder to create something just from scratch.
Additionally, there are monster corporations pulling strings, and there is absolutely no way to compete with them right now. That is why 90% of startups fail, 20% of new businesses fail in the first year, and 70% fail at the end of the 10th year.
So-called “social ideal” in today’s world is — “Intelligence is a new ‘sexy’, and entrepreneur is a new rock star.”
But barely anyone is truly intelligent — only 3,1% of the population is above 130 IQ, and as I showed above — most of businesses fail.
I’m not trying to depress, but that is the reality that we are living in. In other words — that is a myth that everyone is achieving something or is any close to the “social ideal.” Of course, on Instagram, everyone succeeds in everything, but we already know how fake this image is, or at least — we should.
To build any business, you need years of work, lots of sacrifices, enormous self-discipline, and clear goals. Even if you want to create a small mobile app, you still need lots of practice with some programming language, skill, time, and investments.
My point is — it’s a long process, often years of doing something to see some first results, and you never have any guarantee that the results will come. Even in education, you need to stick to the systemic rules and spend up to five years in college — It’s a long time but in fitness? It’s way easier and faster.
Ease of achieving fitness results as a beginner
“As Beginner,” don’t kill me already. I’m not writing about professional field— that is pure hell.
Every one of us has different goals in terms of fitness. Succeed have many definitions here — some people want to build great musculature, others want to lose weight, reverse bad posture, or be more fit in the literal sense.
Why it’s easier? These days knowledge about fitness is everywhere. There are many great trainers that you can follow and learn for free. You don’t even have to go to the gym at the beginning — I’m still workout 99% from my home, although I started three years ago, and now I’m around advanced level exercises.
If you have never trained before, and you are honest with yourself in terms of regular, proper exercises and some diet, you can see some results in your body even after a month of exercising 3–4 times per week with some program.
Another big spark will be around three months, and you can be quite “fit” at this point, and after six months, you can be literally a different person.
Six months to achieve some visible life change is an unimaginably fast process compared to building a business or learning some skills such as programming, and for me, that is the psychology behind the “fitness boom.”
For many people, that could be the first time they actually achieve something indisputable because it’s clearly visible in the mirror.
That feeling of fulfillment may be addictive, and we may seek that in other people, like “Wow, I really achieved my goals, I look good, my self-confidence is high. Now I’m going to create Instagram and inspire others!”
Well, sometimes toxic, but overall — that’s great.
Outside of fitness, it’s a bit more difficult
But anyway — it’s a great brick to success in other life areas.
When someone is in a state of “mental health issues” and doesn’t feel like doing anything, it’s way easier to start simple workouts than starting, e.g., a business.
The list of benefits of a workout is a long one. It could reduce the chances of many diseases, increase general vitality and health, positively affect mental health and mood. Moreover one can build or rebuild self-confidence by better look or real achievements, which is an essential asset to success in life.
I experienced something like that myself and healed, thanks to “small steps,” collecting my daily victories. I had various routines, and one of them was a workout. I started with a simple stretch and shortly after advanced to nearly everyday training of mostly — calisthenics.
I’m no one special in terms of genetics, and I’m not an Instagram adonis, but I feel quite good. In two days, I will turn 26 but I have more energy than 16 years old version of me — that’s pretty awesome.
Even if it’s way harder to build a business or achieve anything significant in life than to workout 3–4 times a week and get in good shape, it still improves chances of success in different areas of life by various positive benefits of active and healthy lifestyle.
A more serious approach to exercising can teach us many good things like consistency, time management, discipline, humility, and patience, which will surely help with any other field.
Thanks to the benefits of exercising, new body shape, and maybe some new friendships from a fitness culture, you can surely move your life forward.
It’s one single best step that everyone with mental health issues should take even in terms of easy, beginning yoga or simple stretching every day. Daily workout can help break the negative cycle of thoughts, and the body will surely say “thanks” to us by giving a better mood.
Jim Kwik said:
As your body moves, your brain grooves.
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