As mentioned briefly in the prologue, a study in 2009 found lack of support is the number one barrier to exercise, beating out lack of willpower. This means that other people can make or break your resolutions, and their influence has a lot to do with how you look and feel.
In the most common scenario, when you start exercising, one or more of your unhelpful, physically inactive friends (or family members) starts poking fun at you or displaying her resistance to your change in a variety of other ways. This essentially communicates “don’t you dare change your life for the better.” If you do, it will be obvious she’s unable (or unwilling) to make such changes herself.
While there are dozens of different ways to deal with this problem, the one piece of advice I’ve found the most useful is to focus on yourself and ignore what others are saying.
It all comes down to trusting yourself and your decisions. If you know that exercise will change your life for the better, why on earth would you let others influence you to stop improving? Because of fear of being judged by them?
Now, I don’t believe that you should be a lone wolf trying to change your life without any support whatsoever. Ignoring others and trusting yourself is the first step. The second step is surrounding yourself with people who share your attitude.
Fortunately, when you start exercising, it will be extremely easy to make friends with other people who either want to change their lives or have already changed them.
In the climbing gym I attend, you can meet a wide variety of people. A vast majority of them share one thing – they love climbing and support others who share their passion.
Whether you’re a 40-year old single mom, a 25-year old overweight student, or a 55-year old man with a belly, most will be happy to give you advice, guidance, and support so you can learn the sport. Friendships happen naturally when you’re both trying to do the same bouldering problem or try to scale the same climbing route.
Things aren’t different in other venues populated by sports enthusiasts. If you go to a fitness gym, both the staff and fellow gym goers will help you. If you want to learn how to dance, other passionate dancers will be there to support you.
If a lack of support bothers you a lot, choosing a sport that can be practiced with others will make it easier to befriend people who will support you (and help you ignore the people who aren’t helpful).
Whenever possible, finding an ally in a friend or a family member is better, but if it’s not possible, look around and make new friends. There’s no rule prohibiting you from making new supportive friends when learning a new sport.
Alternatively, consider joining a forum dedicated to fitness or the sport you want to learn. You could also find a fitness social network (or utilize the ones you already use for following and interacting with fitness-oriented people).
A lot of knowledge and inspiration for the sports I’ve practiced so far came from online interactions – both in the passive form by reading the posts and articles of other people as well as in a more direct way of personal messages and seeking personal advice.
Please keep in mind that many people online try to provide well-intentioned advice but don’t have a lot of experience themselves. On forums, high post counts and reputation can help identify whose advice is valuable and whose is not. On social networks it can be more difficult to verify, though usually you can trust the most active users who provide thorough advice.
No matter the experience, all people – both beginners and experts – in such places can give you support to continue working out. Many forums offer the ability to create a progress thread that works in the same way as a public journal of your efforts. If you don’t mind divulging a bit of information about yourself online, consider setting up your own progress thread so you can get personal advice from other people and become an inspiration for others.