On Monday evenings, the gym is always packed. How do I know? I go to the gym five times a week, and it's a big, commercial gym. On Tuesday evenings, the gym is still packed, but there are fewer people than Monday. On Wednesday, the gym is a little less full than Tuesdays. Thursdays are scanty. Fridays are like Thursdays, more or less. And on Saturday evenings, there's hardly anyone in the gym.
Monday is the beginning of a new week, and everyone is motivated. Brands that use personal development as the basis for their social media content creation would upload a design on Instagram with a caption like, "It's another Monday, and we know what Mondays represent; an opportunity to do better."
Yes, yes, many people say they hate Mondays because they have to go to work. But if you are passionate about personal or career development in any way, you have to get ready for the week. So, even though you don't look forward to Monday, you must prepare for it.
Okay, you completely hate Mondays. I agree, but what about New Year's? The first day of the year; what about it? At some point, everyone has tried to change for the better just because it's a new year. People make new year resolutions and other such promises to themselves.
A very popular promise that people make to themselves at the beginning of the year is that they will attain their dream body. So, that takes us back to the gym example. In fact, most people have a body they dream of. If they are not already trying to get that body, they plan to get it "one day."
Away from aesthetics, exercise has a lot of PR now. The endorphins must be working overtime because the benefits of exercise are so often pronounced that if I wrote a paper about them, it'd be considered simplistic. Hence, exercise and going to the gym being the basis for the generalisation I'm about to make seems valid.
Now, people quitting the gym and ignoring their new year resolutions not long into the year is a very popular phenomenon; much more well-known than people not going to the gym after the first few days of the week. You have probably heard someone joke about how gym owners rejoice at the beginning of the year because there's an influx of subscribers.
This brings us to another popular concept that meme makers and sharers have abused; the urge to get your life together at 3:00 am Oh yes, it's three in the morning, and you've been scrolling through Instagram for the past three hours, but all of a sudden, you get the motivation to attain higher levels of personal and professional development, and looking like a popular fitness influencer is one of your goals.
Remember the generalisation I mentioned earlier? Here's it: The urge to randomly get your life together by 3:00 am is very much like the desire to fix your life at the beginning of the week or the beginning of the year. At this point, you are probably wondering whether people get this urge at the beginning of the month too. Well, I believe they do.
What's the problem with feeling like you need to get your shit together at 3:00 am? Nothing, except that most times, people do not follow through with what they have to do to get themselves to where they are in the 3:00 am imaginations. The same goes for failed new year resolutions, losing your drive on Tuesday night, or feeling like "this is not my month" somewhere around the 15th.
Of course, you are thinking about this and checking if you are one of these people. You can answer that question, but it does not matter much now. You are already in an advantageous position because, at least, you are trying to be better than you were before, even though you get the urge only so frequently. And this is not just related to your body and exercise; it's related to everything else you pride yourself in; anything you have or love to do that you can get better at.
This was not planned to be motivational. It's just supposed to remind you of the goals you had a few days, weeks, or months ago. If you had these aspirations, it means they are important to you, and somehow, you want to achieve them. It's not like you're lazy.
Perhaps, you forgot how much you wanted it, or you forgot to keep trying because other things are taking up your time. You forgot to make time for change and development. It's easy to do this. You're like almost every other person, so it's okay.
But when you get the urge to get your life together by 3:00 am, don't forget it when you wake up later in the day. There's only so much you can do to better your life at 3:00 am (so much = cleaning your apartment).
So relatable
This story follows the repetitive cycle that plagues most people who are on the journey to personal development. It doesn’t judge those who fall victim to it but instead feels like a warm nudge towards the right path.