I almost purchased yoga mats
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Three weeks back I had one of those bright ideas, the kind that believes that if I buy a product then I will start doing the associated activity. Cassandra and I have intermittently done yoga together in the past but it has been several years since.
As I was kicking a football (soccer) around the back yard, I thought to myself how good it would be to do yoga together as a couple again. So I jumped in the car and went to the store to get two yoga mats. I thought how cute and connecting it would be to do yoga together.
I found two mats for $15 each and started walking toward the checkout.
But somewhere between the exercise equipment aisle and the technology aisle, I had the thought come to my mind that perhaps I should first start doing yoga before investing in any equipment, after all I didn’t NEED any equipment to get started. Cassandra and I could do yoga perfectly well on our living room rug for the time being.
So I turned myself around, returned the mats and then drove home empty handed. I told Cassandra about my idea of doing yoga together and explained why I had gone to the store.
Since that day we have done zero yoga together. It is true that we probably would have done yoga that first night had I purchased the mats, but mats would not have changed our behaviors.
So often we believe the fallacy that if we only had the right equipment we would behave differently and have better habits. But I don’t think that this is how it works. New running shoes won’t make you a runner, nor will a treadmill. A new laptop won’t make you a writer or an artist.
We all fall prey to this line of thinking. We could call it the equipment first, behavior will follow fallacy. Most of the dreams we have, goals we want to achieve and aspirations we hope to attain do not require us to have any new equipment. Generally all we need is to take action, the first step, to move forward and begin developing a new habit or routine.
We should start to develop the behavior first, then we can consider what equipment could enhance our efforts. We can start writing that book we’ve been meaning to write on that crappy old laptop that’s been collecting dust on free google software just as well as we might on a brand new Macbook pro. Our existing running shoes, sweat pants and water bottle will work just fine to get started.
It isn’t new equipment that is holding us back from achieving our goals, that’s because new equipment won’t or can’t change us. The key is to start taking action today. I am trying to apply this as I write on my 2011 iMac that no longer gets software updates. But it works and I am writing.
Whatever your goal is, you probably don’t need a new product, service, app, or anything else that costs money or precious resources to get started and making real tangible progress toward its achievement. Just get started, take the first step, then as it becomes a stronger routine, it’s then that we look for the few items that will enhance our ability to continue succeeding and progressing.
All the best.
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I absolutely did this with running shoes. I did not have the discipline to put the shoes back before getting to the checkout. I did run the following morning. I have not run since. That was like 4 months ago.