I haven’t missed a daily workout in over 12 years. I’ve published a daily blog for over 8 years.
When you do anything consistently for such a long span of time, there are times when “just showing up” is enough. You’re just doing something to keep the streak alive.
In those seasons, the process is simply about maintaining consistency and momentum. It’s easier to maintain the practice when you never abandon the routine. When you show up at the gym every day, even to foam roll, you don’t have to worry about how to fit it back into your schedule.
On a busy day, or in a season of life when a lot is weighing on you, something is better than nothing.
But showing up to do “something” isn’t always enough.
Eventually, just showing up to do “something” gets stale. Going through the motions without moving forward in some way starts to feel depleting instead of energizing.
It becomes about action without progress. It feels random and scattered, rather than focused.
One of the fundamental needs of humans is to feel like we’re making progress. We have an innate need to improve. Whether that improvement comes from loading more weight on the bar, better endurance, or refining technique doesn’t matter.
This is especially true for people with ADHD, who are already prone to a disorganized nervous system.
Understanding the difference between “workouts” and “training” is crucial here.
Workouts are random groupings of exercise designed to get you moving.
Training is a structured format focused on improving technique and making progress toward a goal.
Workouts can be a component of training, of course, when they are structured in a way that helps someone meet their goals.
For neuro-typical people, too much action without progress can be frustrating after a while. For ADHDers, it’s a recipe for dysregulation.
We need the focusing agent of a larger goal and a feeling of making progress toward something — even in incremental steps. This becomes a structure that helps our nervous systems stay regulated. It keeps us on the path.
If something feels irrelevant or like it’s too random, our brains won’t fire enough to get us to do the action. We need to understand how the actions we’re taking fit into the bigger picture of those goals.
In my physical training, with my writing, and with any other projects, I know that when I start feeling that sense of boredom and despair with my actions, that I’m stuck in “workout” mode instead of training mode.
It’s a signal to make a change: to set a new goal; create a new plan, and create a new path to progress.
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