“Alright, let’s go around the room and say what we want to be when we are older.”

I can bet that most of you have had this discussion when you were younger and that at least 3 people in the conversation said that they  want to be an athlete.

I have been thinking a lot about this over the past few weeks: what does it really mean to be an athlete?

When we think of athletes, we think of professionals, but we never seem to think of ourselves.

Merriam-Webster defines an athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.” This seems to be a quite broad description, yet we still seem to apply it very narrowly. Why can’t the goalie on a soccer team be regarded as an athlete? Why does it typically only apply to the striker or midfielder? The truth is that anyone can be an athlete.

I think the most detrimental part of fitness is the amount of times that we put ourselves down.

There are a lot of people in fitness who think that they will never be good enough, never be strong enough, never be fast enough. I say, “good enough for who?”

Some think of this degrading behavior as motivation. It’s what drives them to go to the gym and lift an extra plate, run an extra half mile, do an extra minute of abs. However, talking yourself down in such a manner is less than motivational. Motivation is walking into the gym with a smile on your face and being happy that you are just doing it (unintentional Nike reference). There’s a difference between pushing yourself so you can improve and pushing yourself so others view you better.

Fitness is an internal battle. We go through spurts of wanting to give up and times of wanting to be nowhere except the gym. That’s natural. Skipping the gym for a few days is not awful.

Your progress will not be lost. It’s about balance. And fitness also has the tendency to turn into a competition. As long as the competition is not degrading it can be quite healthy and rewarding. Having someone push you into areas that you did not think were possible is quite exhilarating and can be great bonding. However, some people take it too seriously and start to believe, “well if I can’t do what they are doing, I shouldn’t even be doing this at all. I’ll never be able to “fill in random degrading message here.”

Being an “athlete” is a broad definition that has the capability to narrow people’s perceptions of their fitness. If an athlete is something that you aspire to be, I say then do it. You have the ability to be an athlete no matter if you are sitting on the couch and have never been on the treadmill, or if you currently go the gym twice a day. Being an athlete is about an image in your head, and you always have the opportunity to change that.

See you on the next stop 🙂