How To Get Someone To Exercise
Wanna know how to get someone to exercise?
You know, because you just made a lifestyle change and now have to do that annoying thing of trying to convert everybody on some holier-than-thou shit. As is more than likely, that person you want to proselytize is your partner so you can work out together because, fuck, it’s not like they should ever be apart from you nor have the freedom to pick and choose how they spend their time. Nope!
Anyway, whoever that person is, I bet you probably think the best way to get them to work out is to write them a report on the benefits of exercise or how working out gives you the warm fuzzies so you can compel them to want to experience those feelings too. Something else that you may find appealing is plastering their surroundings with posters of people in shape and performing great feats of strength to make them feel bad about how they look, how much they weigh, or how weak they are, in addition to making comments that serve the same purpose. Fuck, you might even want to kidnap and force them to engage in activity with you at gun point if they refuse your invites to come with you to a training session or group fitness class. While all of those ideas are good, none of them are the answer, though.
So how do you get someone to work out then?!
The answer is you don’t!
See, taking care of yourself via diet and exercise is about behavior modification. And no matter how badly you may want someone else to take better care of themselves, they won’t modify the behavior necessary for that to happen unless they want to take better care of themselves as badly as you want them to. Until they reach that point where they’re ready for change, anything you try to do to get them to live a healthier lifestyle will be futile and possibly affect your relationship. So yeah, there’s nothing you can really do to get your friend, relative, coworker, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, boy toy, concubine, or whatever else to join you at the gym.
Well, correction, there’s nothing you can really do except focus on your own behavior. By doing so and setting a good example for others around you, they might get motivated enough by your gains and losses to want to seek change too.
But if you changing doesn’t make them also want to change, that’s still their prerogative…
…because they’re autonomous human beings with free will who aren’t put here on this earth only to please you and do whatever the fuck you want them to, you freakin’ megalomaniac!
Glossary: diet, exercise, gym, motivation, work out
