9 Growth Opportunities That Come Out Of Fitness
“Fitness is not about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be.” – Khloe Kardashian
The gym can be a place where you can catapult your growth. Where you can dig deep and become a more powerful person. To hone the power of your mind. And to create an entirely different life. You only have one life, but you can radically change your existence.
From the moment you first walk though the doors of the gym. And every time thereafter. There is major opportunity for personal transformation. A opportunity to rise from the ashes. Become someone better. And at the end of the day, become your own hero.
The two biggest pillars of what has made me up to this point, are personal development and the gym. But the gym has allowed me to integrate both at the same time. And I am a firm believer of doing things to maximize your productivity. Being efficient. And the gym allows me to be incredibly efficient in this manner.
But I wrote this article as a way to show you what I have learned regarding the interconectiveness between these two realms of my existence. Hopefully to inspire you to take up fitness, help you grow as a person. And reach for your goals and dreams. Because I believe in you and know you have infinite power and potential in your DNA. You have greatness in you.
OK, encouragement rant over!
Below are the 7 different ways that fitness and personal development are linked together.
Also, if you have some time and want to become inspired by some awesome personal development quotes, check out this post I wrote for you guys that can keep the fire burning to become the best version of yourself! 251 Personal Development Quotes
1.) Forces You Out Of Your Comfort Zone
This can be especially true when you first sign up at the gym. You are getting yourself out of your comfort zone. Giving fitness a chance. Giving yourself a chance at transformation. So if you haven’t yet signed up at a gym. Or it has been a while, then I encourage you to sign up TODAY. Don’t wait. The longer we wait, the more we allow fear and negative limiting beliefs to sabotage our success.
But as far as getting out of your comfort zone goes, the gym does this to us on a daily basis. We are forced to push through pain. To get a reward from our pain. The soreness that it brings shows that we were courageous enough to do those last sets or reps. To, instead of running from pain, face it and conquer it. This is a massive life lesson that we are learning. To get something from our suffering.
This can translate to seeing our past pains as something we can grow from. That we can become victors over it. Instead of victims. That no matter how bad the process was, we can come out better and more transformed because of it. This is a mentality that we can learn to take into everything bad in our lives. That we have the power to see it as something that is developing us. Giving us a tougher hide. Breaking us down, only to build us back up stronger.
2.) You Become Your Own Coach
The thing about the gym is that when you are going on a consistent basis, you are developing massive levels of willpower. The ability to push yourself to do something, when you don’t want to do so. The more we do this, the more we develop an unshakable inner strength. Something that can’t be touched when things get tough in our life. And a strength that allows us to thrive and be much more successful when things are not tough.
It allows us to become our own coach.
3.) Leadership Over Self
A leader of our own lives. It shows us that we have the power to build a better body. Which is the essence of our own existence. When the physical is transformed, so is the mental. Our personal image gets better. And our image of ourselves is literally reflected in every single area of our lives. This means that you will bring more courage into every single realm of your existence.
Once you learn how to conquer yourself, you can conquer anything in life. Any obstacle.
Naturally, you become a better leader to the people in your lives. You get a larger vision of yourself. Which translates to seeing the best in people. Believing in others. Leading people with encouragement. You treat them better because you now like yourself better. As the way we treat others is directly correlated with how we feel about ourselves.
So not only are you become a dictator of your own life. But you are also causing a ripple effect of impacting your circle. Your community. And maybe even one day, the world at large.
4.) Self Reflection
There is something meditative about the gym in which we get insights. We have time to reflect. Our neurotransmitters are firing that boost our mood. Foster higher levels or creativity and optimism. And have a generally better outlook about life.
This presents a field of energy that allows us to courageously examine our lives. We can learn things about ourselves that may be sabotaging our success. We also get to really think about our goals and dreams. What we want out of life.
We also feel a sense of being unbreakable. There is something about getting stronger that allows you to think different. Outside the box. Outside of the norm. And here is where you get the courage to go after big dreams. Dreams that maybe were on the back burner before you stepped foot in the gym.
It can all start here.
Self reflection is the key to knowing yourself. And when you begin to know yourself, you get a bigger sense of vision and purpose of your life. You examine yourself. Which presents to you what YOU want and and need out of life. Which will provide answers to these questions. The big questions. That can help you become the person you were meant to be. And create a life of substance that allows you to feel deeply fulfilled.
5.) More Positive = Less Positive People
People that are feeling better about themselves are naturally more positive. Once you immerse yourself in the culture of the gym, you transform your outlook on life. You see life more as an opportunity for growth. Both physically and mentally. Naturally, you make new friends. These people are much more positive than people who do not work out. Blatantly saying, gym rats have a much more positive outlook on life. They have conquered themselves and the things going on in their life, time and time again. They channel anxiety, stress, depression and the valleys that life throws at them. All in the weight and cardio room.
Then are able to transcend these negative states of the human existence because they have a release. An outlet to channel negativity. Giving them the ability to let go of rough and tough times.
Once you immerse yourself around these people, you align yourself with winners. You become a winner. And naturally you make new friends. New and positive friends.
We attract who we are and who we want to become. Hence you are becoming more, which naturally the people who aren’t grow fall out of your circle.
It is a tough reality, but you need to get the nay sayers and negative people out of your life. You gain the confidence to do so by building a better body.
Your circle may become smaller, but that doesn’t mean it has less value. You make better and more positive friends. Who bring exponentially higher value to your circle. And you become what you hang around. You will become an entirely different person.
6.) It Shows You How To Break Though Plateaus
Bruce Lee once said,
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There is no limits. Only plateaus, and we must not stay there, we must go beyond them.”
Often times life will hit us hard. We feel as if we are plateauing. Hitting a wall. Life hands us a raw deal and we just don’t know how to move forward.
In the gym, you learn that plateaus can be transcended. And just like anything in life, if you can do something in one area, you feel more confident in doing it in another area.
So when it comes to the gym, you can show yourself that plateaus are in fact can be transcended. It can be done. Sure you may have to bust your ass a lot more than normal. But it can be done. If you work it right, dedicate yourself to doing whatever it takes, plateaus can be broken through.
For myself, it has taken me 3 years to go from a 425 deadlift to a 525 pound deadlift. But just because it took this long, didn’t mean I became discouraged. It just meant that I needed to adjust my approach when I fear that I am plateauing. And remind myself of this Bruce Lee quote.
So when you show yourself that you can in fact obliterate a plateau, you see them in a different life outside the gym. You have an inner belief now that you can break through obstacles that seem as if they are going to be imposed on you forever.
This can make you better in both your personal and professional life.
People who conquer plateaus are seen as, and are actually stronger people. Compared to those who submit to them. They are seen as more attractive, both physically as well as in the work place. Resulting in better intimate relationships. Along with better chances at advancing in your career.
Which it all started by showing yourself that obstacles are temporary. It all starts in the gym my friends.
7.) It Gives You An Outlet
Us gym rats get into the gym at first to transform our outer image. But when it comes down to it, it becomes a release. A way to deal with life. And a way to shut the world off for a while. This is a form of meditation that quiets the mind. When the mind is quiet, we can begin to know ourselves and get insight.
We are able to enter into a place of self care. Recharging our battery by being alone with ourselves. And forgetting about the troubles that are outside of the gym. Centering ourselves in the moment. This is great for spiritual growth. As the more quiet we become in our minds, the more we can feel our true nature. A nature that is unconditionally loving. Showing us that we create joy and happiness from within ourselves.
This is a lesson that all the great spiritual teachers have taught. And we can learn it inside the Iron Paradise as some of us meatheads call it!
8.) You Become More Healthy
You can feel good or good about yourself if you are overweight and eating like trash. You feel sluggish and tired. Which results in lower self esteem. It causes you to drag along and slouch over.
As you start working out and eating better, you nourish your body with the nutrients it wants and needs. Your who entire cellular structure starts performing better. You feel more exuberant and alive. Again which you are accessing your true nature. The fog starts to lift. You pull back your shoulders more through building a stronger core and foundation. And your body starts operating with more energy and drive.
You are able to experience a more happy self because of it. This is linked to growth because we cannot access our true nature if we are covering it up with unhealthy habits. When we shift gears. And start building our body with resistance training, and eating better, we perform better.
This allows us to get the most out of life. Out of our relationships. Out of our job. Out of the videos and books we are reading. We are more alert, which causes us to retain much more information. This creates more positive experiences in our life. Hence making us feel better about our existence and perform better.
9.) You Learn Balance
Bodybuilding, in the raw sense of the term, is creating a body that is aesthetic and balanced. It is trying to attain good symmetry. Creating a balance and good look between all of your major and minor muscle groups. Now I know that most people don’t care as much about this as maybe myself.
But anyone who steps in the gym wants to build a stronger overall body. This means that they must create a balance between working out their lower body and upper body. Creating a natural balance of working out certain and different muscle groups every time they go to the gym.
Most peoples gym schedules are spread out throughout the week in which the gym goer hits each muscle group a minimum of one time a week.
Due to this, we learn how to create balance in our body and in our being. This lesson is crucial in life. A great life lesson in which we can create balance and equilibrium in our lives. Extremism causes addiction, obsessive thoughts and feelings of tensions in our bodies.
When we learn how to balance our bodies and they way we build them, it bleeds into our lives. Also when we dedicate ourselves to creating balance in our gym routine, we feel more balanced. Both physically and emotionally. It creates an inner compass that seeks more balance in our lives. Which the foundation learning balance can come right in the walls of your preferred gym!
Conclusion To The Link Between The Gym And Personal Growth
So there you are my friends, my two cents on why I think going to the gym can create massive ripples in your life. Not just when you look in the mirror at your new physique. But the way you look at your actual SELF. You begin to like yourself more as you realize that you are growing as a person. That it may have started as a physical pursuit. But with consistency it can become much more than that. It can be a beacon of hope. And a way to rise from the ashes. Burning your old self to the ground. And arising anew. Like the phoenix that rises, shedding its skin. And flying high as a new and radically transformed creature.
I hope you enjoyed the article and got value from it. My mission is to inspire people through fitness and personal development. I hope this article showed you just how beneficial fitness can be to create more harmony and happiness in many areas of your life.
Share with me what you got out of this article. And if you have anything to add that can benefit our community!
Be well my friends.
Let’s chat in the comment section below!
Chris