Introduction
A very realistic situation is you lying on your bed at 2 am and realizing your life is a mess, you haven’t gotten out of your room for days, you’ve been ordering junk foods, watching Netflix all day, and not really making any progress in life. So, with a surge of motivation, you open YouTube, see a bunch of self-help or productivity videos, learn about 10 new habits, order 6 new books, and get a gym membership because tomorrow will be different, you’re about to change your life from tomorrow. Now, we’re no strangers to what happens next, maybe 3-5 days ahead.
Now what if one single habit could set you ahead of 95% of people?
Accept it or not, you’re currently running in a race. A race of status, wealth, or fame, and on this race course, you’d do almost anything to get ahead of others, at least a good amount of your competition. And we take advice from others, all the what-to-dos and the how-to-dos in the hopes of implementing them in our own life and possibly get some advantage in life. But this hunger for advantage is well leveraged by the companies to keep feeding you more and more tips and tricks (basically nuskhe). Things like journaling, Cold shower, and more, are things you can implement and maybe see some results and just stop doing it after some time.
Hello, Sankho here, I have been a fan of productivity and making the most of life for quite some time and have been consuming related content on the internet for almost 8 years now. In these 8 years, I have tried to implement several of these habits or tips into my life and saw the results (good or bad or nill) first-hand and there are 2 things I have noticed about them.
Different Habits have different levels of impact: Not all habits are the same, some are high impact, some are not, some show results in the short term, and some take a long-term investment to start showing results. I’m trying to narrow it down to particular habits that show results pretty quickly (less than 15 days) but also are tremendously useful in the long run.
Too many Good Habits: Pareto’s principle applies here as well, 20% of the habits will make 80% of the difference. This can be explained better with this graph that plots the number of habits to the margin of improvement in your life.
As you can see the more habits you try to incorporate in your life, no matter how good they are individually, it just ends up being another ball on your plate that is already overflowing. What happens next is not new to any of us, we get burned out, and we can’t possibly start reading, cold showers, working out, running, journaling, and budgeting at the same time. Truth is, realistically, we can’t take on 6 different “good” habits and build them from the ground up. The solution is very simple, take them one by one and start from the most impactful to the least impactful.
And by far, THE MOST IMPACTFUL habit for me and the people around me has been Working Out/Exercising. Anyone who says working out is overrated has never been to the gym(or has never worked out consistently). Now to clear your doubts, sit back, get a coffee, and let me state my case.
What is Working Out?
Firstly, working out may mean different things to different people. It depends on your lifestyle, your current body, and your goals. Let’s break them down a little. Whether you’re a working professional, trainee, or a student, working out can benefit your life (other than making you look sexy af that is). If your body fat percentage is a little high, or you want to get rid of the double chin (or the love handles so you can wear a crop top), you might want to lose some weight and for that you need cardio.
Big Attention Sign: Do Not work out without any knowledge, either do your own research, study the problem, the solution, and the side effects (don’t be scared, the side effects of working out are extra rizz lmao), or just partner up with someone who has been doing it for some time and is experienced(which is what I did, I tagged along my friend to the gym and learned something new every single day from him and other people in the gym).
Back to what we were talking about, if building muscles is your main target, weight training is your ideal path, you want more mobility, start doing yoga or even calisthenics. There are numerous other benefits of moving your body, sweating, and lifting weights. Anyone who works out regularly will agree with me.
Still don’t believe me? Have a look at Tom Cruise and Matthew Perry.
Can you tell that Tom is 8 years OLDER than Matthew?
According to studies, only around 25% of people work out somewhat regularly. And my speculations say, it will come down to less than 5% when it comes to weight training/calisthenics. So, If we consider working out as a good habit (which it is), just by starting to work out 5-6 times a week, you are getting ahead of 95% of people, in terms of appearance, confidence, and health.
Should students work out?
I’m sure the majority of you reading this are students. Students have a lot on their plate, school/college, coaching, assignments, projects, exams and so much more, wasting 1 more hour of your day to work out and get even more tired is a stupid move, right? HELL NO! Studies show (and also I have experienced this firsthand) that moving your body keeps you more energetic throughout the day. Lifting weights increases your testosterone level (which basically makes guys closer to Chad) which helps you build muscles, if increases your appetite, and most importantly, keeps you healthy for longer. Working out will postpone your joint pain and back pain by years(Look at Tom Cruise still doing his own stunts), which is an amazing long-term investment.
Girls, listen up
Now it might feel like I’m only speaking to the boys, absolutely not. Boys aren’t the only ones wanting to look sexy af (and also healthy and more energetic). Girls, I know you probably want that slender waist along with a respectable butt (you might think it’s too tough and share every-body-is-beautiful reels on Instagram as a defense mechanism). Let me tell you, nothing worth having is easy, If a good physic was easy to have, everyone would have one, have a look around, you’ll know what I’m saying.
Let me be the slap on the ass to get you to start working out. Trust me and give it 15-20 days, It’s very tough at first, your body will be very sore after the first day, and it would feel physically impossible to go to the gym, but please go, I beg you. The soreness will go away within 3-4 days and you’ll start to see the difference in energy levels. Give it a week and you’ll feel like taking a day off, DON’T. Believe me and keep going for 15-20 days and the weights will start feeling lighter, you’ll be able to run a little longer on the treadmill and you’ll feel a little lighter on your feet while walking around. After that, you’ll have your reason to keep going.
The End?
Thanks a lot for reading the whole thing. This is the end of the post but not the end of my pushing you to start working out. Let’s keep track of each other. If you’re going to start tomorrow, let me know in the comments. You might also want to join the fitness channel in our discord server to share your fitness journey (because it feels better when you’re doing it with other people) or just feel free to send me gym progress photos, I’ll always be there to compliment the gains and cheer for you.