In Malcolm’s Gladwells book “David and Goliath”, he talks about a term called relative deprivation. One of the examples he gives is of a girl (Caroline) who topped her class throughout her school years. She loved science and did so well in school she had a choice of prestigious universities, going to the one with the best reputation and facilities.
She dropped out of the course surprisingly quickly.
Due to the fact that she struggled to keep up with her peers in the course, no matter how hard she worked. Caroline was the victim of being a small fish in a big and very talented pond and Gladwell’s point is that the relative deprivation she felt crushed what could have been a great scientific career.
You may feel that this has very little to do with your health and fitness but with surveys over the years showing things like 55% of women feeling judged for not looking fit enough when going to a gym and nearly one out of two being intimidated at the thought of entering a gym.
Add social media to the mix and relative deprivation can really come to the fore. Seeing so many people with their perfect workouts, super healthy meals and balanced lifestyles and getting consistent with your healthcare routine may can become a drag and something that you eventually give up on.
Below are some of our tips to make sure that you never appear in a book talking about the hassles of relative deprivation and broken fitness dreams!
– Be clear on what you want: Get clear on what you want from your fitness regime and why you want it. Put a plan together to get to the point you want to get to. Then go after the plan consistently, being strong enough to not get your head turned by every fad/new workout/target that you’re being told that you should hit along the way.
– Manage your media: We like to follow other coaches and gyms that will we will get education and inspiration from. For you if you are looking at any social media profiles that make you feel inferior or bad about yourself, our advice is to get rid of them immediately and stick with those that will educate and inspire you.
– Get perspective: As coaches we feel very confident in the gym setting. However if we were to do something like try and argue a point in court or try and drive a double decker bus we wouldn’t be so smart. All of these things take practice. For you, your skill to this point in life might have been in academia/bringing up a family or any number of things. If you’re starting out on your fitness journey, commit to being consistent long enough to give yourself the strong, fit healthy body you want.
– Be aware of your environment: Similar to social media. If you’re working out somewhere that you don’t enjoy going to, find somewhere different. Not all gyms are appropriate for everyone so find the one that resonates with you, then get into it and work as hard as you can as consistently as you can.