Chapter 30 6.b Adjust the pace of life a little slower

At 32, I started going to the gym as regularly as possible, although there were a few breaks in between.The reason why I persevered at the beginning was not because of my perseverance, but because of fear - I had moderate fatty liver; it was the doctor who scared me: "I'm only in my early thirties, it's moderate, it's a pity..." I knew it was not a terminal illness, but when I thought about it a few hours later, I was still in a cold sweat from the doctor's way of speaking.I don't believe in traditional Chinese medicine, so I choose to go to the gym to exercise.

There is something particularly interesting about the gym business model.As you may know, the revenue of a restaurant can roughly be calculated by multiplying the price of the dishes and the number of tables; but if you use the same method to calculate the revenue of a gym—annual membership fee multiplied by the number of equipment— - You'd think any gym would have to lose money.But in fact, the investment to build a gymnasium is not small, even high; moreover, it is still difficult to find a gymnasium in Beijing that is losing money. Once I chatted with the coach, which roughly confirmed my guess.From a numerical point of view, members who persist for less than two months (in fact, only 8 weeks) after paying the annual fee account for more than 95% of the total number of members-this is already a very conservative estimate.And members who have persisted for two months are often impossible to go every day.

Too many people go to the gym and pay the annual fee, but they are really just expressing a good intention.If these people go to a mid-range gym, according to the current price in Beijing, the annual fee is about 4,800 yuan.As a result, many people made a calculation at the end of the year, and went there a total of 6 times, so a single consumption of 800 yuan!As a result, gym members seldom renew their contracts in the second year, but the sales representatives of the gym are not worried about this, because the same group of people comes and goes, and there is never a shortage. Among the 5% of the members who persisted, there are still many such people: they go once or twice a month, or once every two months.The funny thing is that these memberships rarely benefit from fitness - because they go so infrequently - but they usually renew in the second year, however, the number of people who renew in the third year is almost zero.

There are many people coming and going in the gym, but very few people are persisting.The real number may surprise you. In a medium-sized gym, the number of people who persist all year round accounts for less than two thousandths of the total number of members.If you're a perennial stickler, you'll see serious faces most at the gym.Even after a long time, if you see someone with a serious expression, you can't help but laugh in your heart, because you know that this is a face that you are almost destined to never see again. In the gym, do you know how to tell at a glance who is the one who has been persisting for a long time?The easiest way, of course, is to look at their figures.However, the most fun and most effective is to observe their expressions.The expressions on these faces are calm, deliberate, and relaxed, yet focused.They do a long warm-up, then begin to regularly complete the day's exercise, supplemented by a fairly long cool-down.

I have often observed why so many people fail to persevere--despite having as much good intentions as the few who do eventually persevere.The first possibility is that they practiced too hard at the beginning—not to mention them, in fact, no one can persist.For example, running is the most effective way to lose fat, but most people run in the wrong way.As soon as I got on the treadmill, I adjusted the speed to above 65 and ran hard. I was out of breath within 10 minutes. After jumping off, I held my hands to pant and wipe my sweat.In fact, within about 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, only water is often consumed, and fat is consumed only after 30 minutes.However, their running method will never be effective-except for being very tired.Of course, the fact of being "tired" creates an illusion of "I've been working hard".

The correct way to lose fat should be jogging.If you jog to the point where you are slightly out of breath, change to brisk walking, and then change to jogging when you are evenly breathing.In this way, it is easy to persist for 30 minutes, and then, in the next 10-15 minutes, if physical strength allows (usually after two months of adaptation), try to run as fast as possible, or at least run harder than the previous 30 minutes A little higher to burn more fat. The same is often true of other things in life.The reason why many people's plans cannot be completed is because their plans are actually "Superman's Plan" - "Impossible Mission".I often see students' plans saying "recite two hundred words every day", "write five English compositions every day" and so on.This kind of intensity is just "seemingly feasible" for those who are starting out.In a world where everyone is in such a hurry, it can be very difficult to slow down.However, it should be remembered that anything worth doing is worth doing slowly—for a long, long time.

Then why do so many people work hard from the beginning?The physical education teacher told us the skills of long-distance running when we were very young: we didn't start sprinting until the last 100 meters.However, this kind of reasoning seems to be useless even if it is clearly stated-otherwise, why do so many people do things the other way around-they often do the first 100-meter sprint, and then simply stop running. The explanation I've seen in gyms goes like this: These people often decide to exercise only when they have to.Coaches I know often complain to me that their members think too much and are unrealistic.What the coaches say is this: "Theoretically speaking, how long does it take a person to accumulate those fats, and it takes roughly the same time to consume those fats." So, if a person is twenty-five years old He began to gain weight. When he came to the gym at the age of 35, he had 40 catties of fat on his body. Then he asked the coach to help him lose that fat within three months. Either he went crazy or it was a dream.Of course, with a little effort, ten years can be shortened to five years, or even two or three years, but it will definitely be many times longer than those who don't know why.

This explains why so many people always imagine that there is a "quick" method-because they have been slack for too long in the early stage, and now they suddenly find that there is not enough time, and the deadline is coming soon, so they can only place their hopes on it. The existence of "quick" methods.If you've ever had similar hallucinations, don't be surprised, most people do.It's almost in everyone's nature.And this kind of nature makes people have to be exhausted in the end, so the fast food industry also indirectly flourishes; this kind of nature also makes countless training institutions form a huge industry parallel to the so-called formal education; A huge vertical industry - tens of thousands of new weight-loss drugs are launched around the world every year, and all of them have been proven to be ineffective. Next year, more products of the same type will be launched, and they will be even more popular...

Therefore, the correct strategy should be: Find a way to predict what kind of skills you will need in advance, and then determine that it is a skill that you can really master through practice, and then make a long-term plan and implement the plan bit by bit.This is not at all, nor can it be, my unique opinion.In fact, many people have already told you the same truth: "Don't wait for the opportunity to come, only to find that you are not ready" or "Opportunities always favor those who are ready".And after understanding this truth, you will really examine your life and start to wake up.Later, when you look at the people around you who are busy but doing nothing, you will know how ridiculous they are, because they are pursuing things that they can't get at all in their lives. In the end, there is only this way out: either Disappointment in life, or choose a religion and hope in the afterlife.