So recently I have had a dilemma which seems unimportant, but to me is essential to motivation and effectiveness. It's called Gym Membership Renewal. Having got what I considered to be a pretty good deal on my membership last year, with it being half price if I paid the year in advance, I then received the renewal letter a few weeks ago, that was clearly on a different level of payment. It was £312 for the whole year or £35.99 a month (my deal last year effectively meant it was about £15 a month). Then there came my 'I'm so smart I can negotiate my way to a cheaper deal' attitude, only to learn after a few calls and 4 emails that the gym were not going to be swayed on price. It was what it was, and I can only assume business must be thriving, because they made no attempt to meet me even a quarter of the way or listen to my concerns. Now that in itself says something about a business, so I thought forget it, I won't be renewing this year.
Well a couple of weeks has gone by and now I realise that I have been truly beaten. I need the gym. I am currently crawling on my knees back to the gym, apologising profusely as if I have just ditched a woman who was way out of my league to begin with, and now realised my heinous errors. Ok so it was worth a try to see if they would budge on price, but the reality is without the gym I revert to being an unmotivated idler, who can't make up his mind what to do. And yes I know there are other ways to get fit other than the gym, but I am not that inspired by running round outside. I have done it before (especially when training for a 10K) but as a way to keep fit, I like the machines, the weights, the mats and the variety. I'm good at getting up to go to the gym before work, mix up my exercises and feel ready and alert for the day.
Now there will be an extra £35.99 coming out of my bank account every month to keep doing what I have been doing for the past year. It's a tricky thing how you way up weigh up whether to pay for something or not, especially something that will make a notch on the bank account. If you can find a way to get the same results another way then great, but what if what you have been doing works? That's hard to walk away from, which is the position I find myself in.
In the end it comes down to what Jim Rohn brilliantly describes as the difference between cost and value. Many things can cost the same but they can have completely different values. For example, you can buy the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill for under a tenner. The ideas written in this book though can be life changing and incredibly valuable. For the same money you can also buy a meal at Burger King. Now I am a sucker for fast food, but even I can see it has little or no perceived value at all (to us fortunate folk in the first world anyway). In fact, it perhaps has detrimental value. So many things can have vast differences between cost and value, and this is how I have to look at my gym membership. It may cost £35.99 a month, but I have to make sure that the value I attain from this is worth much more. You cannot put a price on health and productivity. I am totally convinced that regular exercise is as good for your mind as it is your body. You become motivated, effective, productive and all those other positive personal developments effects, as well as a massive increase in your self esteem.
The 'experts' have stated that you need 3 periods of good exercise a week to stay healthy, but I will tell you what happens in real terms, completely free of scientific evidence, when you do and don't achieve this.
Think of each time' as a 45 minute period:
0-1 times exercise a week - Put on weight, lose fitness
2 times a week - You stay pretty much as you are
3 times a week - You lose weight, get fit and improve your general physique
People go to the gym more I know, but 3 times a week is what you need to do. LL Cool J has muscles I would not wish for and he always stated he went to the gym 4 times a week, so I'm happy with 3.
Therefore, with tail firmly between my legs, I have caved in to the highly increased Gym Membership. But as investing money in yourself goes, it's up there with the best money you can spend. Knowing I will not be sat at home being completely indecisive about going for the run I do not want to do, and can get back my energy and motivation levels, is good enough reason for me to feel good about caving into to the new membership scheme.
