What We’ve Learned In 14 Years of Owning a Gym

Last week, we celebrated our 14th anniversary of being in business.  If I could go back to those first days, and try to imagine where we might be over a decade later, I don’t know that I could fathom the quality and quantity of relationships that we’ve been so fortunate to build with so many great people, both clients and staff alike.

We talk a lot about consistency, and “staying in the game” as it pertains to one’s fitness journey over the long haul.  And, in my ongoing effort to draw parallels between training and life, here are two things I’ve learned in my experience owning the gym that might be applicable to you (I was going to do 14, but really who wants to read all of that?):

1) Merely existing is not enough

This is not at all meant to take away from the achievements of any small business that manages to keep their doors open for a long time, as the challenges that face us are REAL, and so much sits outside of our control.

For our first year or two, our only goal was to create something that could sustain itself, and allow us to pursue our goal of helping others help themselves get fitter, healthier, and happier.  In fact, if we’re being honest, we really didn’t have much of a plan beyond that when we started.  So, when we got to the point that we had accomplished that first step, and were looking at the next five years (and beyond), we had to start viewing things a bit differently.

And here is the (hopefully) applicable part: in order to feel deep down like we were doing what we set out to do, we needed to be making steps, every week, toward improving, learning, and growing.

Of course we tried from the outset to do a better job all the time, but improvement became for us more than a goal, but a way of being.  This means open and honest assessment of how we’re currently doing, along with the discomfort of recognizing where we fall short.  It means finding ways to expand our knowledge and abilities, getting creative with our offerings, and learning from mistakes.

But it also means (and this is hard for me at times), that we need to balance always striving for better, with appreciating the work that we’ve done — and the things that have gone our way —to get us to where we are now.  

Just as in fitness, we can work hard on making our bodies better, while also being grateful for what they can do now.  Pushing for improvement doesn’t mean that we only live for the future, and the thought of someday “getting” to a goal;  it means that we see where we can be a little better (especially in ways that might help us serve others), and put in the effort to make it happen.

And that brings to my second learning, which is…

2) You’ve gotta keep doing it, even When it’s not perfect

Anyone out there that is a writer, musician, artist, or someone who simply creates things regularly will recognize the fact that not everything you make is going to be amazing — or even good.

These people, though, also tend to recognize this as part of the process, and have learned how to keep going, without throwing in the towel (or at least not permanently).

Work, training, parenting — these are things that require us to apply ourselves daily (or daily-ish), and the outcomes are not always reflective of the effort.  There are days when we are crushing it, days when it’s crushing us, and everything in between.  But showing up, again and again, is the only way to ensure that the improvements we make take hold, stack on one another, and allow us to move in the direction we want.  There’s a quote by Jerry West that I’ve put out here a few times before:  “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days you feel good.”

Fourteen years of doing the same thing can turn into Groundhog Day if you don’t find a way to over-index on the good, and under-index on the bad, annoying, or just plain boring.  Trying to improve, even in tiny ways, WHILE we show up consistently, is how we’ve been able to keep loving what we do, and never stop learning from it.

That, of course, and all of you great people that make this place so rewarding and fun.  Thank you for 14 years, and heres to many more! ❤️