Love it.

People, when they know what I do for a living, feel compelled to tell me about their exercise habits; I’m good with that because I love what I do.  Some people are enthusiastic, some carry around bags of guilt, and some come out and say that they just hate exercise.  It’s all fine.  The enthusiasts are squared away, so I just stamp their validation card for the great gradebook in the sky (no, there isn’t really a great gradebook in the sky).  I reassure the guilt-feelers that they’ll make the changes they are considering when they’re ready.

 

The haters are the interesting group, actually.  A small portion of them do, in fact, hate exercise, but it’s a very small portion.  The rest just need to broaden their perspectives a little.  Maybe they hated P.E., which is entirely understandable.  Maybe they carry the scars from that Little League coach who yelled all the time, or that aerobics instructor who made fun of them.  Maybe they would rather have a heart attack than spend another minute on the treadmill.  All that may be true and valid, but it may not mean that they really hate exercise.  People who hate weight lifting may love swimming or hiking.  People who would rather have dental surgery than take a HIIT class may find that yoga is the key to feeling really awesome.  There are so many kinds of exercise that it really is possible to find something to enjoy for nearly everyone.

 

The key thing is to be motivated by love.  I love my bike.  It is not hard to go for a bike ride because I start pedaling and I am suddenly a carefree nine-year-old.  Some people feel the same way about hiking and swimming and gymnastics and even weight training.  If it’s hard to find an activity that is loveable in itself, we can move on to love at one reserve:  love of how we feel afterwards.  Maybe we don’t love exercise, but we love being able to chase the kids and catch them on the playground, or we love how our clothes fit better, or we love having more energy.

 

We can choose to let go of our traumatic P.E. memories and the bad coaches and the mean instructors and the boring workouts.  We can shed the guilt and the negativity.  Then we can go play because we love it.