I’m on quite a few email lists for fitness people.
And while I need more emails like I need a hole in the head…
Some of them provide legitimately useful information, and I think it’s important for me to stay aware of what’s happening in the fitness space.
Even the dumber stuff.
Because when someone asks me about a specific supplement to “boost their immunity,” I can tell them the industry has been trying to push that shit for years and it hasn’t worked outside of incredibly frequent IVs that still don’t seem to provide a lot of results.
(I had this conversation last week about glutathione.)
And with all this exposure to fitness nonsense, there’s a message I see all the time that I probably never need to see again.
I call it the “personal responsibility guilt trip.”
It’s always some version of…
“You’re struggling with X problem and you want to make Y change…”
“Sure, you may not have created the problem, but it’s still your responsibility to fix it…”
“So take action, give me a shitload of money, and buy these supplements!”
And sure.
I get it.
It’s a powerful narrative.
“You are the only one who can change your situation.”
It puts the power in our hands and gets us motivated to actually do something – even if that something is giving a random internet person a few thousand dollars.
But it’s not entirely true.
First, it’s easier to rise with a bit of help from other people.
So yes, while I’m the one who ultimately has to take whatever action, there are things other people can do to help make taking that action a whole lot easier.
Or a lot more difficult.
And I’m pretty sure a giant guilt trip and a 2-paycheck price tag isn’t making anything easier.
I also understand the message from a coach’s perspective – because every week, I get to have some version of the following conversation:
“Hey, how were the 10-minute walks after dinner this week?”
“Oh, we just didn’t have the time.”
“I mean, 30 seconds ago you were telling me that you rewatched the entire series of Stranger Things since I last saw you. Which is great. It’s on my list of things to do this coming week. But to me it sounds less like an issue of time and more like an issue of prioritization…”
I’ve had a version of that conversation so many times that I’m pretty sure I could do it in my sleep.
And it’s an important thing to recognize.
Because excuses like “I don’t have time” are easy to make.
And in a lot of situations, true.
But they’re almost always a result of what we choose to prioritize.
Personally, “I don’t have time” for a weekly, mega-long run because I choose to prioritize other things. As a result, I can’t fit a weekly 6-hour trail excursion into my schedule without giving up a lot of other stuff I also love to do.
Which is fine.
But it’s important to recognize that it’s a result of prioritization, so if I did want to change it, I would know where to start.
So I do understand the message.
If you want results, you have to take action.
Unfortunately, that’s rarely the end of the message.
It’s not just, “If you want results, you have to take action.”
It’s almost always, “If you want results, you have to take action. Specifically, the action of giving me a lot of money. And if you don’t give me a lot of money, you’re a lying liar who’s lying to yourself and you’ll never achieve your goals.”
Which is clearly bullshit.
There are a ton of ways to reach most goals.
Yes, you’ll probably have to prioritize and take action to get there…
But that action doesn’t necessarily involve giving a random internet person a lot of money or buying endless supplements.
It might just involve going for a run and doing some deadlifts.
Or maybe it just involves changing your priorities and determining what’s actually important to you.
No matter what, it probably doesn’t have to involve a guilt trip about personal responsibility.
So, go do something today that helps bring you a bit closer to your goals.
And when you slip up, recognize that it’s probably an issue of prioritization and figure out what you have to do to adjust your priorities.
Or just change your goals.
Either works.
And neither requires a guilt trip.
Now I’m going to eat some breakfast and climb a mountain with a friend.
Hope you have a great day.