We live in an era where almost everything we do gets multi-purposed for content, whether it’s videos of a workout or journal entries sent as newsletters.
As a result, the most intimate parts of life turn into performance. We put expectations on ourselves — often in ways we don’t realize — to make the activity count so we can repurpose it later.
For the past several years, I’ve recorded at least part of most of my workouts. I rarely post the videos anywhere.
Mostly I record them for myself: it helps me to see what I’m doing so I can spot compensation patterns and correct my form.
But even when it’s just for me, it can make my workout feel performative.
At least once or twice a week, I try to do a workout where I leave the camera off. Those workouts are just for me.
Some of those workouts are my favorite, because I can just move without thinking about what I’ll say about it later.
As much as anyone else, I’m a big fan of “document over create” — the content of life is often worth sharing and can be of service to other people.
But not everything needs to be shared.
It’s also nice to have moments that are just for you.
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