To the ones that looked at themselves and said "I want to make a change this year" – don't give up now.
The New Year has come and gone by in a flash and the hype behind all those high aiming resolutions has gone with it. For the seasoned gym-goer, this phenomenon is nothing new – the "Resolutioner Rush" that leaves the whole place filled to the brim for basically the entirety of January. It's really something that's seen as an inconvenience: all the machines being taken up by people that couldn't tell you their quads from their biceps, the track basically being on overflow and the chance of finding a free spot on the racks? It'd be better to start dreaming about squats at that rate.
All that being said, it's really easy to fall into the mindset that the "Resolutioner Rush" is something to find as an inconvenience but that is in itself a really backward way to think about people finally getting to the gym, don't you think? More than anything, aren't those the people that it would be the most important to finally be there – the ones that actually need to make a change in their lifestyles?
For those of us that have already made the shift or were lucky to be raised with a healthy lifestyle, it should be our role to encourage those that are willing to take that step towards a better place – not call them a nuisance and wait for them to vanish once they've given up.
As someone that found their beginning in the "Resolutioner Rush" of 2016, I'm especially inclined to believe that the New Year is more than just an overhyped inconvenience because I know first-hand what motivation is capable of doing. That burst of hope, that little bubble of ambition – it's an opportunity that doesn't come often. It's unbelievably terrifying to try and grasp not because the work itself is terrifying, but more because its the fear of failing and ending up right back where you started – the work inevitably being for nothing.
For that reason, I wish that those who already know what they're doing be the people to say "Hey, let's go to the gym" and keep them accountable in their decisions, let them know their decision means something to the people around them. Give them faith that the work they're doing now will amount to something in the future.
Of course, that's not to say that you should be there looking over their shoulder at everything they do or walking up to random people and telling them they're doing something wrong but be there to egg them along and help them stay on the wagon if it feels like they're starting to tumble.
At the end of the day, it's not your job to make that change for them – that's the personal part of the journey. At the very least though, don't be the one telling them their work is for nothing.
