Arnold Schwarzenegger, a believer in having a vision and goal, has always encouraged fitness enthusiasts to start working on them immediately. However, he recently pointed out a flaw in most people’s mindsets that hinders achieving the said goal. In his recent newsletter, he admitted why he despised planning for bigger milestones.
Armed with his fitness app and daily newsletter, Schwarzenegger has always enabled easy and accessible ways to improve physical and mental health. However, he strongly believed that people tended to delay working on their fitness routines under the pretext of planning.
Recalling several interactions he had over the past few decades, he noted how people would always tell him they were planning to go on a diet or hit the gym. But they would never get past that stage to pursue their desires, which was supposed to be their goal in the first place.
“Everybody who plans has good intentions, but let’s be honest about what it really is.
Planning means you’re not taking action. You’re choosing to avoid getting started.”
So, one ends up researching, planning, and thinking about their goals all up until they do not end up taking any action. The cycle goes on, and the goals remain unfulfilled.
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Change and working on a goal as tricky as exercising and looking after one’s health is not an easy task to deal with. Schwarzenegger firmly believed that to fulfill those goals, one had to go through uncomfortable situations that did not involve planning.
“Let’s be completely honest with ourselves. Planning makes us feel good because we tell ourselves we will be better without doing any uncomfortable work.”
To help solve this conundrum and break the cycle, Schwarzenegger suggests immediately starting to work on one’s vision once they set it. While this may lead to some uncertain situations where one may face discomfort, he encourages being unprepared. Making mistakes is something that he has always been supportive of, as long as one learns from it. Hands-on experience always tops hours or days of research, and that’s what mattered the most to Schwarzenegger.
Arnold Schwarzenegger once warned how discomfort would always find its way
As a champion of cultivating an inclusive fitness space, Schwarzenegger created his exercise application, which aimed to get enthusiasts to work towards their goals. One of the USPs of the application was how it would ‘lock‘ people into their chosen fitness program.
However, users soon began complaining about the said feature since it did not pave the way for flexibility in schedules. Watching a bunch of red marks on their task list as they failed to perform their daily workout felt demotivating to many. That’s when Schwarzenegger jumped in to explain the feature and understand people’s concerns.
While he agreed that there should be more room for flexibility, he argued that a bunch of red marks shouldn’t bring one’s morale down. Similar to life, he designed the app to make an individual a bit uncomfortable so they can push themselves to be their best.
Although he ultimately did end up rolling back the feature, he left his village with wise words about how discomfort would ultimately find them until they learned how to beat it.
