Fitness Is What Allows You To Live A Pleasurable Life
Have you ever found yourself thinking:
“I ate too much yesterday, so I have to go for a run today.”
“I’m so stressed out; I need to hit the gym and blow off some steam.”
“I haven’t done anything active in days, I absolutely must work out.”
If these sound familiar, you’re not alone. For many of us, especially those who have been consistent with exercise for years, a subtle but significant confusion can set in: we start to mistake training for being active. We begin to treat exercise as a chore, a punishment, or a transaction to compensate for food, stress, or a perceived lack of discipline.
But what if we've been looking at it all wrong?
The Real Goal of Fitness
Let’s break down three distinct ideas that we often lump together:
Fitness is the metric. It’s a measure of your body’s capacity to perform physical tasks.
Training is the tool. It's the structured process you use to improve that capacity—lifting weights, running intervals, following a program.
Being Active is the reward. It's the gift of using your fitness to engage in activities that bring you joy.
In other words, the purpose of training isn't just to get better at training. The true goal of building fitness is to earn the freedom to live a fuller, more vibrant life. We train to make hiking with friends effortless, to have the energy to play with our kids, to play a sport we love, to walk around a new city for hours, or to be able to cook 3 dishes at the same time for the party we are throwing.
When Training Robs the Joy
The problem arises when the tool becomes the end goal. We get so focused on the workout itself that we forget what we’re building our strength and endurance for.
Consider this: why do so many professional athletes stop playing their sport the moment they retire? Because for them, the activity they once loved was transformed into a job. The structured, relentless nature of training squeezed the spontaneous joy out of the playing. The same can happen to us. Even if you love weightlifting, the experience of training for a new one-rep max feels vastly different from playfully lifting stones on a beach. One is a disciplined pursuit; the other is pure expression.
Reclaiming Movement as a Joy
If your only outlet for being active is a structured workout, you might be missing out. I encourage you to think beyond the gym. What if, instead of another hour on the treadmill, you could spend that time outdoors, with people you love, practicing something that makes you lose track of time?
Maybe you don't even know what that activity is yet. We're so conditioned to believe that "bang for your buck" gym workouts are the only valid way to be active that we forget the simple, profound happiness that comes from movement itself.
Joyful activity doesn't have to be intense. It's often found in our other hobbies. Think about the physicality in things we don't label as "exercise":
Walking to the perfect spot to take a photograph.
Kneading clay for a ceramics project.
Moving around a stage during acting practice.
Navigating a bustling kitchen to prepare three dishes at once.
When you pursue these interests, you’re not just enriching your mind; you’re engaging your body in a purposeful, natural way. You’re building memories, having new experiences, and letting movement be a seamless part of a life you love.
So, the next time you have the thought, “I need to be active today,” I challenge you to reframe it. Instead of asking, "What workout should I do?" ask yourself, "What joyful thing can I do with my body today?"
Choose to do something you love. That is what your fitness is for.
