I think you’ve been there before. In fact, I think you passed through there only a few months ago, if you’re not still there right now. You might be wondering, “where ‘there’ is exactly?” I’m here to tell you that it isn’t a place as such but more of a nagging feeling that seems to hit every year around July. Winter arrives systematically revealing everything we tried to disguise in the blue skies of summer. It washes away the fields of green we buried all our problems under. Most of the year has been spent and yet somehow the year is far from over. And even though the days are shorter, the hours seem longer. Like a weed growing unnoticed until its seemingly everywhere, negativity has this way of engulfing you. Thankfully, where there is poison, there is also a remedy.
At the beginning of July, I received a final email reminder for signups to VMO’s Ultimate Media Champion (UMC). While I had seen a few of the previous emails, procrastination had forbidden me from taking action. But I finally thought, “maybe it’s possible to sweat out your feelings”. So, I signed up to be a part of the first Ultimate Media Championship. What I didn’t realize was this 10-week challenge was going to unlock three hidden and yet obvious Laws of life.
The Law of Third Spaces
After an active and fulfilling first half of 2024, I found myself falling back into an old routine that you may be familiar with. Wake-up, go to work/ work from home, eat, sleep, repeat. What this routine lacks is a third space and on some days, even a second space was nowhere in sight. Let’s clear the air on what exactly a third space is. Ray Oldenberg first introduced the term third spaces in his book, The Great Good Place. He defined a third space as somewhere you frequent regularly which fosters pleasant social interactions that are free from the responsibilities of daily life. Think of home as your primary space and the office as your second space. Your third space can be literally anywhere else. For me, my third space became the weekly UMC training sessions at Fitness First. I believe we can all agree that since the pandemic of 2020, life has felt a little lonelier. As humans, we are social creatures and numerous social studies have concluded that a sense of community is essential to our wellbeing. Chemistry says old bonds are broken when new bonds are formed and I believe the same is true for habits and people. The weekly sessions became a part of my routine which created a vital outlet for connection but that’s not all.
The Law of Novelty
It’s tempting to believe that routine is the answer to all our problems. Don’t get me wrong, your morning routine creates a level of stability that ultimately makes your life easier. However, stability can easily be mistaken for stagnation and fuel a subtle but noticeable level of discontent. This is why novelty is the spice of life. It is garlic on buttered bread, vinegar on salty potato chips and chocolate powder on a cappuccino. It is the key to balancing the equation of our lives. Novelty forces us to think and act differently. This may or may not be true for you but for me, the gym only consisted of the treadmill and the Stairmaster. So the weekly training sessions included in the UMC was the perfect way to force a little novelty into my life. Every week, there were new and challenging exercises along with machines that I didn’t even know existed. Each session felt like I was unlocking a new level in a video game, which brings me to the final Law.
The Law of Consistency
If novelty is the missing spice of life, then consistency is the plate life is served on. Just like you must eat food every day to live, novelty, and the spaces which cultivate our routines, both require consistency to be effective. You may feel like I’m preaching to the choir here because consistency is obvious but it’s not always what you want to do. I didn’t always feel like waking up early to willingly submit myself to a 45-minute sweat session - but for me, consistency is discipline and discipline is the purest form of self-love. Whilst it’s only been 10 weeks, I feel like I’m beginning to impersonate David Goggins. However, it’s difficult not to begin to echo his, and every other gym bro’s sentiment of ‘no pain, no gain’. I have seen an incredible increase to my level of fitness and undoubtedly this was a direct result of consistently attending the weekly UMC classes.
These three lessons aren’t the only thing I am taking away from the UMC. I started this challenge with the mindset that I would like to ‘sweat out my feelings’ but in fact I’ve been able to accomplish much more. Vigorous exercise has a way of ripping off our comfort band-aids and exposing where our fragility lies. Only an exposed weakness can be strengthened. Every drop of sweat helped me to form the belief that I can do difficult things. So, to put it simply, I feel stronger, more resilient, more capable - and I like it.
And whilst nothing in life is guaranteed, I feel confident to say that forty years from now when I’m in my seventies, you’ll catch me walking 20,000 steps a day through quaint hilly villages in Italy, snowboarding in the Canadian Alps or scuba diving off the coast of some remote island. All in all, I will be living my strongest, happiest life from now until the end.
Treasure Aamayah, Performance Manager - Social, Wavemaker