On King Street (main commercial street) in Alexandria VA there
was a promotional booth for a (fancy) gym last weekend. The two men promoting
the gym’s services approached passers-by and explained how each training program
is designed by I don’t know what specialist.
Being in a rather bad mood at the
time, my gut-reaction was: You Suckers!
Late December is a fantastic time
to sell annual gym memberships at a premium. It is the perfect time to charge a
lot for something that will not be used that much. This time of year lots of
people make resolutions for the New Year to come, including going to the gym (more
often). Coupling this wishful thinking and over-optimism with the large amount
of money spent on Christmas festivities, paying 1000$ on a one year gym
membership (discounted from 1200$, of course) makes all the sense in the world.
Gyms are full in January and
virtually unpopulated starting mid-February.
The filled with optimism final
days of any year are a fabulous time to sell, among others, the most expensive clothes racks and dust gatherers. I’m talking about home-gym appliances.
If you wish to get back in shape
and restore the look you had in your early 20s, I strongly advise to become
realistic. The early 20s look is long gone and will forever be so.
However, the over-inflated
optimism can be put to good use for yourself, not for the marketers who sell
you things that you’ll probably not use much.
If there’s one useful lesson from
behavioral science, that is:
Who controls the context controls
the behavior.
Are you controlling the context? Because
for sure the context controls you to a very large extent.
If you want to get in shape,
buying 100 gym subscriptions and 10.000 home gym appliances won’t do much good
as long as your context is the same as last year. Making changes in your daily
context will help you.
Begin by rearranging your kitchen
and eating space (Slim by Design by Brian Wansink is a great source of inspiration).
Join a food delivery service such
as Hello Fresh and cook!
Walk! And take the long way home,
literally! Get one of those activity monitoring devices such as fitbit to
motivate you to make a few more steps. You could also try moving to a different
home, though that is a bit difficult.
Discover where the stairs are in
the building you live or work… use them, they will not bite even if you climb them.
Probably the most effective way
of getting back in shape is to go back on the
mating market - start dating, fall in love etc. While highly effective, this
approach is a bit difficult for people in committed relationships.
I wish you a good and down to Earth 2016.
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