I once wrote an article titled, "Why I Write."
In short, the article basically stated that if an individual has a question about fitness and claims they want to improve their health and fitness, but isn't willing to read 200, 500, or 1,000 words, then they don't have the minimum required discipline to achieve anything fitness-related.
Fitness, achieving health goals – it's a game of patience and grit.
I get asked questions literally daily. Paying clients that work with me one on one have the pleasure of having me explain and/or show them the answers to their questions during sessions. Some of these answers aren't black and white, and, therefore are peppered with my own personal theories from experience and the research we do have available. My clients pay good money for that service.
But many others ask me questions. If I'm with the person face to face or speaking on the phone, I can provide my feedback directly. Sometimes it's very detailed, sometimes it's pretty short and sweet. That depends on the question.
But sometimes, friends or acquaintances ask me a question, or series of questions, that involve some extra detail. Again, this stuff often is not yes or no. Fitness and health are complex. Usually it's a topic that I've hashed out in written form at some point, and, if I think a specific article or post I've written will benefit them, I'll send it to them to read. If they refuse to read it, then it appears, to me, they didn't really care too much one way or another what the answer is.
Sometimes people will ask me things and I'll chuckle and ask if they read/listened (I do a lot of voiceovers, summarizing articles, training logs, or thoughts via video now) to any of my social media posts, if I know they follow me. Some people respond with something like, "I'm not gonna read what you write in your captions."
Keep in mind, these captions are generally no more than 500 characters. Often much less.
So, why do I write?
I write as a vetting process, to separate the serious folks from the users, the shortcut takers, and the whiners.
In a way, I write as a rite of passage. If you're willing to take 5 minutes to read an article, you're probably a person capable of taking control of your body, your nutrition, and your lifestyle. And as a result, you'll benefit from reading what I have to say. Those people motivate me to continue writing, day in and day out, sharing my thoughts, my training, and my musings, entirely for free.
Quick, attention-grabbing, algorithm-loving, deceitful cut-edited reels and tik toks have handicapped people's brains and their ability to process and understand information. It's a serious problem. It's making people feel like they're learning more, when in reality they're being fed low quality, poorly thought out content and everyone's being conditioned to not be able to focus on anything for longer than 7 seconds. We expect everything to be a quick video that grabs our attention. This carries over into poor conversational skills, as well, but I won't go down that rabbit hole today.
The people that don't think writing is a good way of sharing my message (because it's too long form and slow) aren't the people I care to be receiving my message.
For all of you here reading, thank you!
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