WHY PEOPLE LEAVE AND THE ART OF FITNESS/WELLNESS
This week’s newsletter with important announcements and loads of content can be found HERE.
Meanwhile, here are TJ’s thoughts for the week:
I came across a this blog post from Nick Cave. He has a website/blog where he answers questions from anyone, fans and people who have no idea who he is alike.
I immediately saw the correlation between what he was saying and what happens with us at the gyms.
We have all seen people come and go. Members have left for numerous reasons.
Some left because they got hurt. This reminds me of the Greg Glassman quote where he said something like “To achieve quality and quantity of longevity and health you may incur temporary orthopedic catastrophe’s.”
To some of us, this is normal, and we roll through the set back. To others, it is a devastating event that needs to never happen again. So they search for another path.
I find it interesting that some people can’t wait to get back on the pickleball court or mountain bike after nine months of recovery from surgery and rehab, but they leave our program the second they get a tweak in their shoulder or back.
Dopamine is an interesting hormone.
Others leave because things “have changed,” which of course is inevitable. What I see is intrinsic change, but they experience extrinsic change. They see the workouts, staff or community change, and they no longer see a benefit.
What I see is that their lives are evolving in some way and they are hoping that the hour they spend here will freeze it, speed it up, or provide nostalgia in some way.
I believe, based on lots of experience, is that consistency will provide success.
The slow and uphill grind of child rearing, career work, and health and fitness and other regular life practices offers much better results than the stutter-start style of chasing life’s magic beans, which are oh-so-tempting.
“Making art is madness,” Nick Cave says, and I say that making fitness is art.
Observing life. Watching matter move through time and space. Using emotion as a tool, not the North Star.
We have the knowledge and motivation to help people through life in the one area of our expertise.
Changing what empirically works in order to satisfy the temporary emotional surge isn’t possible for us, and sometimes we have to let people go, as painful as that can be.
We’re here for you, so reach out if you need help!