Since I am a little older than I was during my fitness club days, I thought I’d share an observation made at LA Fitness in Bristol years ago.
This gym had two levels, with the cardio upstairs overlooking the weights downstairs. I can remember looking down and people watching as I did my 30 minutes on the Lifecycle or the treadmill. I watched all sorts of people lifting weights below. Fit men and fit women working to fine tune their body and stay healthy. And I thought to myself…
If they only spent as much time and dedication as they do here, working on their profession and career…or if they took the same 1 hour per day they were spending at the gym and instead worked on reading one of the many great personal development books out there like “Success Through Positive Mental Attitude” or “The Slight Edge”…what would their lives be like?
You see, we all have paths to choose and if you pick the path less traveled, you can be debt free and be living the American dream of having true financial freedom. Or perhaps you might be next CEO or President of the firm you are working for.
We all have decisions to make each day that over time will change our trajectory, both professionally and financially. These decisions or simple disciplines may seem like no big deal in the moment (for example, should I hit snooze for an extra 20 minutes of sleep or get up and spend that 20 minutes reading 10 pages of a personal development book?) but over time those simple disciplines can turn into massive success and happiness.
I’ll end with a quote from Jeff Olson’s “The Slight Edge” because I think he says it best:
“The truth is, what you do matters. What you do today matters. What you do every day matters. Successful people just do the things that seem to make no difference in the act of doing them and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in.”
I challenge you that next time you are faced with a decision, no matter how big or small, you will think to yourself before taking action if this decision is helping you achieve your long terms goals or acting as a detriment to your goals.