Who Are You?

Doing my workout this morning and the trainer said that how people talk about their workouts is one way of identifying who is going to keep working out.

If you tie your workout to an outcome, like you are working out to fit into a pair of jeans, or you are working out to get off your diabetes medication, you are less likely to continue to workout whether you hit those goals or not. If you refer to yourself as someone who works out, like I lift weights, or I'm a runner, then you are more likely to continue working out.

I thought it was interesting.

He's also a big preacher of consistency over intensity. Even though before he went to work for iFit he owned a Crossfit gym so... Or maybe that's why he knows. Either way I was happy to hear it today. I've got some plantar fascia pain in my left foot going on. It's better than it was on Saturday but still tender. I decided to give walking a try today and it was okay, so then I decided to do my ramp to jogging, hit the increase in speed, took four strides and noped right out. I'm not ready for that level of intensity.

However, I'm consistent about workouts. For those of you who know me you know that. Over the last decade (at least) the pandemic/Tig's injury was the only stretch where I didn't do at least something. Even when I've been nursing injuries I just end up swapping my normal routines for PT. I'm consistent in the fact that I workout. I switch up what I do, I move stuff around to stay motivated. Sure, I'd like to fit into different jeans and make sure I look good in them, but I really workout because I want to be able to continue to move. If you stop moving at my age, you stop moving.

But I thought the shift in focus was interesting. That the self talk that we all do defines us. I workout. I lift heavy things. I do cardio. It's just what I do and part of who I am. And I guess it works because, like I said, I'm super consistent.

Years ago I went through that mindset change around writing. Sort of. Or at least I reconciled who I am with what I thought about it.

I've always had this vision of what being a writer was, and it took a long time to realize what I was envisioning was a PUBLISHED writer. Someone who did the mainstream publishing route and had a wall of hardcovers behind them. They were writers. What I did was a hobby or a lark, but I wasn't a writer. Even though I sit down and write and aim to write more days than I don't so clearly I am writing. I just couldn't ever call myself a writer.

What I landed on was that I didn't think of myself as a writer. Even now, with hundreds of blogs out there I don't really feel all that comfortable telling people "I'm a writer" when they ask me what I do. I still like, "As little as possible" for that answer. If we get into the nitty gritty of what I do to fill my time I will mention the blog but that's about as far as I'm willing to go.

I tried it out for awhile, saying, "I'm a writer" fake it until you make it mindset, get comfortable with the definition, but it just never took. I never felt like a writer. I have no cardigans with leather patches on the sleeves, afterall. And I also decided that I have no desire to do what it takes to get published by a mainstream publisher. I don't want to edit and craft and rework. Basically I don't want to do the gritty work of being a good writer.

But what I do think of myself as is a storyteller. I tell stories. I tell fictional stories. I tell nonfiction stories. I tell fantasies and slices of life. I'm a storyteller and sometimes the way I tell my stories is by writing them down. But I don't have to. I can weave you a story in real time as well. Or through status updates. Or with photographs. Or even with jokes. I'm a storyteller.

It's who I am.

I workout.
I tell stories.
I pet cats.

Consistently.