Why join a gym?
On TV sponsorships, New Year's resolutions, and why we should listen to Calvin Coolidge instead of Planet Fitness
Planet Fitness admitted no subtleties in its sponsorship of the New Year’s Eve programming on ABC: Banners on stage, a sponsored countdown bug on-screen, and very large branded hats all on full display. The company is very proud of their evil-genius move: Joining a gym features prominently in many New Year’s resolutions.
■ Motivation to follow through on big resolutions has a pretty severe rate of decay: Gyms that get crowded in January and February rarely stay crowded into March. It’s not just a problem for physical fitness, since any personal change depends upon mental and motivational frameworks.
■ Our culture tends to celebrate flashy, landmark events. But people grow through the consistent application of sustained effort. Calvin Coolidge put it like this in his autobiography: “If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress. If we keep our faith in ourselves, and what is even more important, keep our faith in regular and persistent application to hard work, we need not worry about the outcome.”
■ There’s not much of a marketing budget for “Keep doing the little things; consistency is what leads to success”. Planet Fitness needs you to prepay for a membership plan, but it’s far more important to commit to a small and sustainable habit, like taking a nightly walk around the block. Pop culture and advertising culture will always have motivated proponents ready to promote their values, but a good society needs lots of people willing to advance quieter values like patience and steadiness.
