Working Out Every Day Made Me Realise These 7 Things About Life

It was around 1:47am on a Tuesday when I found myself doing squats in my living room, still in my work clothes. This wasn't some sort of weird technique to help put myself to sleep, but it was a day 23 of forcing myself to exercise every single day. I'd nearly broken my streak that day - and technically I had, since it was already the next day by the time I started.

Three weeks earlier, I'd felt like I didn't have much control over my own life. It seemed like everything just happened to me while I watched from the sidelines. So on the 3rd of October (a random Thursday) I decided to do something stupidly simple: exercise every single day for 30 days, no matter what.

Not waiting for Monday to start. And definitely not waiting for the 1st of November to have a clean month. Starting it on the 3rd of October and ending it on the 3rd of November was that small act of defiance against my own procrastination was the first victory!

The First 2 Weeks Were Brutal

My days shrank. I'd have 8, sometimes 9 hour work days, then force myself through a workout, and then collapse into bed, exhausted. October became a blur of work and working out - I did it at the gym, at home, early in the morning before work, late at night just before bed, while watching Netflix or Youtube, while waiting for a meal to cook… I started to hate it but did everything I could to cross off another day, so I could tell myself "I did it".

Thankfully, somewhere around week three, I started to feel my attitude change and think what this experience is truly teaching me:

1. Starting Something New Is The Hardest Part

Prior to this challenge, I’ve never been at a gym. I’ve used machines back at school during our PE classes but that was about it. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling that comfortable about going there at all. And when I finally forced myself to do it – I felt as if I was out of place and I shouldn’t really be there.

It got easier with time though. I’d only go twice per week (I mainly exercised at home), but each time I went I felt less intimidated. After a few days, I’ve already started challenging myself to run faster and longer and to lift more and heavier. Doing certain exercises soon became the norm and I wanted to try different things almost every time I had my session.

So the hardest part wasn't the physical challenge, but motivating myself to start something I'm likely to fail at by not following through.

Now when I'm afraid to begin something new, I remember this mini challenge. I learned that it’s okay to start something even if I believe that I won’t be able to complete it. Starting something is the hardest part of the journey, but only by starting we can find out what we're capable of and how far we can really go.

2. Progress Can Become Addictive

I printed a calendar and crossed off each day I exercised (I learned this trick from the book Upskill). Seeing that unbroken chain of X's saved me on the days when every fiber of my being wanted to quit.

There were nights I exercised at 2am just because I couldn't bear to break the streak. There were social events I left early. I even did it on days when I was tired and lazy and felt absolutely ridiculous because knew that certain workouts were meaningless. There was simply no way I’d mess up my calendar and not cross all these days off!

I still use this strategy for everything that matters to me, like writing, reading, meditating, or personal projects that don't have deadlines. The visual progress is the only thing that keeps me honest when motivation disappears.

3. Discomfort Is Where Growth Lives

It’s easy to do things when we feel inspired and want to do them… But forcing myself to exercise when I was tired and not feeling it was one of the most difficult things I experiences. These sessions felt terrible, but I'm also most proud of them.

The truth is that working out when I did NOT want to was what made me most satisfied with myself. I felt that I could do anything I set my mind to. I stopped questioning myself and started to think that if I just start and continue and persevere with something no matter what – I will win.

It made me believe that power is in my hands and that at the end of the day, it really is just a decision. We decide to either do something or not to do it: telling ourselves "I can't" usually means "I don't want to," and "I don't have time" usually means "it's not my priority." Once I saw through my own excuses, I realised how much power I'd been giving away to these temporary feelings.

Now when I'm facing something "hard", I remember those 2am squats that I did while staring at the wall and knowing that I'm getting very little physical benefit from them. If I could do that, I can do most things I claim are "too difficult."

4. Joy Is Non-Negotiable Though

When I was a teenager, I exercised every day for nearly 2 hours and followed a ridiculously strict diet for a couple of months because I wanted to lose weight. I hated it. I also did it while feeling angry at myself for being in this position of needing to lose weight. I couldn’t wait for it to finally be over and I hoped to never need to repeat this ever again. Good news is, I lost weight. But I also made myself miserable.

I enjoyed the challenge this time around, however. I wasn’t angry at myself and I wasn’t overly strict with myself either. I ate whatever I wanted and I allowed myself to socialise if I wanted to (I refused to have a social life the previous time because I was afraid I’d end up eating out or something like that). I wasn’t choosing exercises based on how helpful they are in losing weight. Instead, I did the ones I liked and enjoyed doing. I wasn’t even expecting any real results either, but I was curious to see if I could gain more strength and become more fit. That’s how I started to love the idea of working out. Now it makes me feel good. Almost half a year has passed since I ended the challenge and I still try to exercise around 3-4 times per week.

Yes, I followed through both times because it was important to me but the second experience was so much more pleasant. This made me realise that making certain activities more interesting and meaningful can help ensure that I’ll stick with them for longer, simply because I won’t feel desperate to end it as soon as possible.

Now I ask myself: "How can I make this more enjoyable?"

Whether it's work, a difficult project, or a boring task. Sometimes the answer is changing the activity itself. Sometimes it's just changing how I think about it.

5. Doing Something Is Better Than Not Doing Anything At All

We’ll not always be able to move mountains or do the best work. And we won’t always feel full of energy to exercise well. Sometimes, we’ll only be able to do simple exercises that don't require too much strength or energy and that’s okay. It’s still better than doing nothing and allows us to move forward.

That’s what I realised on days when I had a headache or no energy to exercise. I'd still do some basic yoga or pilates because I found them easier.

To this day, I still try to do things even if I think that it won’t make a big difference. If I plan something, then I’ll do my best to do it on the day I planned to do it, even if I can’t do the whole thing. Sometimes it’s quite ridiculous too – if I don’t have time to do something I planned properly, then I’ll still try to do at least the bare minimum I can. For example, it might be something as little as writing two sentences for an article or looking for an image for a future post… But I think it’s better than not doing anything at all and I can save time the next day I pick it up! At least that’s what I tell myself nowadays - moving slowly is better than not moving at all.

6. It’s Up To Us Whether We’ll Achieve Something or Not

The real point of this challenge wasn't fitness but proving to myself that I could make a decision and follow through with it, no matter what obstacles appeared.

My belief is that the strength of character is one of the key things that allows us to achieve our goals in life. If we have a weak character, then we’ll always look for excuses and won't hold ourselves accountable for everything we do or think.

There were so many moments when quitting made sense. When friends wanted me to stay out later. When I was feeling a bit sick. When I told myself the whole thing was stupid and arbitrary. But I didn't quit. And that taught me something fundamental: it's all up to me whether this challenge will be successfully completed or not.

What matters is making a decision we believe in and aligning our actions and behaviour to support it. Something as simple as making myself spend more time on particular things, forcing myself to leave my comfort zone or saying ‘no’ when I have to, pushes me closer to my goals. This realisation made me much more protective of my time, too. So, I cancelled several subscriptions not because they were bad but because I recognised how much time I was spending on things that didn't matter to me, to gain more spare time to spend on things that did.

7. We Have To Act On Our Inspiration Quickly

Some days I'd get a burst of energy and desire to exercise right there and then. But I'd tell myself I'd do it later because it wasn't the "right time." Two hours later, the energy was gone. The inspiration had evaporated. And then I had to force myself through a workout I would've enjoyed if I'd just acted when the impulse struck.

Now I see that the same thing applies to everything - including ideas, projects, creative work. So many things are not brought to life because we don’t the second we feel the inspiration surge. We wait for a little too long to act on it and find ourselves delaying the work, eventually losing the spark entirely. What a huge loss of opportunity.

Now when inspiration hits, I try to act on it as soon as possible. Even if I think that I won’t manage to finish it, I try to spend at least a few minutes on it, just to start something. I’ve kickstarted many projects like this, most of which I haven't finished (yet). The important thing here is not to complete it fully, but to start and allow ourselves to try and learn - the experience will come in handy when starting future projects that may get completed and lead us somewhere.

Final Words

Everyone who tries a 30-day working-out challenge has a different experience. Some people finish and forget about it, while others let it shape and change them. The difference is asking: "What can I learn from this?"

Sure, not every single life experience needs deep analysis, but some of them deserve self-reflection or we're just collecting memories instead of extracting wisdom.

This short challenge taught me I wasn't as powerless in my own life as I felt. It taught me that character matters more than motivation and that I could create experiences intentionally instead of just reacting to whatever life throws at me.

On the 3rd of November, I crossed off the final day on my calendar. I'd done it! I now could look at the calendar with 30 days crossed off without a single break. But the real achievement wasn't the daily exercising. It was proving to myself that when I decide that something is important, nothing can stop me from following through.