Pay It Forward

I’ve been a long time proponent of asking people for help. I advocate it as a way for beginners to learn. If you’re lost at the gym, if you’re unsure of what to do, if you need help or if you just need some support, never be afraid to ask someone even if they are a complete stranger. Yes, you’ll sometimes get no response and sometimes people will be too busy to help, but most people are more than willing to help out and share what they’ve learned.

Today though, I want to talk to someone else.  I’m not reaching out to beginners today and telling them to ask, I’m reaching out to all of you who are more experienced.  I’m talking to you folks out there who can run for an hour without breaking a sweat and all of you who can easily tell me the difference between abductions and adductions.  I’m talking to the folks who eat healthy and to the ones who are fit.  All of you who, like me, understand your bodies and what it takes to be healthy.  I’m asking you not to wait for the beginners to reach out with a question and instead reach out to them with support and encouragement.

Love One Another

No, I haven’t entered some kind of hippie phase :)  I’m not asking you to start a new movement or write a book about love at the gym.  I’m just asking you to be proactive.  If you see someone at the gym struggling with weights, offer to spot.  If you know of a friend who’s taking the first steps towards fitness, offer some encouraging words.  If you know someone who just started jogging a few weeks ago, tell them how great they’re doing.

No Preaching!

One rule though, no preaching.  You do not in fact know that person better than they know themselves.  Don’t start telling them what they can do better or what they’re doing wrong.  Don’t offer to become their personal trainer.  Just be a friend, even to a complete stranger.  Smile, say “great job”, “you’re doing great”, “wow, you’re making progress fast!” or something along those lines.  Those little words of encouragement mean a lot to people, especially because it’s hard for them to see the progress sometimes.

Memories of Gal2k

It was very difficult for me when I first started out.  I had no clue what I was doing and I felt discouraged and demoralized quite frequently.  It seemed like I was making no progress and quite often I was on the verge of quitting.  It was my coworkers who really came through for me back then.  They did little things like compliment me on how I was looking or sharing their own fitness issues.  Several of them even took me shopping for new clothes as part of my Gal2k project.  It was such a wonderful support system and I doubt I could have kept going without it.  So first of all, thank you to all of you who helped me back then, you know who are!

But now, I’m going to ask all of you to do the same thing.  Take some time this weekend or next week to encourage those around you.  Tell them how proud you are of them, tell them how well they’re doing.  Pay it forward folks, because those people need our help.  They’re struggling and they need the same help we got when we went through all this.  Besides, if we let them fail, who will we work out with?

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Thank you to Stretchy Dollar for including a 60 in 3 article in their latest festival of frugality.  There’s another example of paying it forward, blogs like this helping out each other.  Why don’t you support them by going over to them and reading their articles? Who know, you might learn something important

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