On October 6th, 1898 a fellow named Ossian Everett Mills founded the Sinfonia Club at the New England Conservatory of Music. Today, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia celebrated their 114th anniversary, and I’d like to wish my fellow Sinfonians a happy founders day. Most of you reading this are not going to be Sinfonians, so you may be curious as to why this special day has to do with you.
It doesn’t. But you’re awesome anyway.
You’re awesome because just like Ossian did in Boston, you can create something for yourself. Sure, the man created a fraternal organization for music lovers, but I’m thinking about you creating yourself. How often do you actually think about that? You’re free to do practically anything you want in life! (Before you get smart with me and say, “Harold, we don’t actually have the freedom to do anything we want”…I know. Stop your nonsense and keep reading.)
I’ve been having some great conversations with close friends recently, and a few of them have brought up their overall sense of comfort or freedom with what they’re doing in their lives right now. This is a universal feeling that everyone experiences at one time or another; I’m sure you have! It’s not necesarilly a bad thing, we just need a little kick in the pants. How about this one:
It’s not likely that this quote is new to any of you, as you’ve surely seen it before. Have you ever applied this quote to considering your health and fitness though? Probably not.
“Creating yourself” sounds pretty damn inspirational to me, but most folks have some pretty negative thoughts about health. Don’t do this, don’t do that. Don’t eat that; don’t drink this. You can never have that, and you must have lots of this. We always focus on what we have to do and shouldn’t do, instead of thinking about how we can be rewarding our body with what it likes to do. If you want to relate it to exercise, let’s consider intensity levels for a second. How many people can you think of that use the treadmill or elliptical that LIKE to use it? Perhaps some, but most people use them because they feel they have to. On the contrary, how many people do you know that finish a tough conditioning session (let’s use hill sprints as an example) and say ‘Wow that sucked, I hate having to do that.’ Sure, hill sprints suck, but the people who focus on the positive always come back for more.
If you’re focused on “creating yourself” instead of “finding yourself”, you’re seeking out change and improvement, instead of letting it come to you. There’s a big difference between wanting change and sitting around waiting for it, and wanting change and going out there and making it happen. What have you done recently to create yourself? I’ll ask an even more important question: What are you going to do tomorrow to create yourself?
Each morning you wake up, you have the opportunity to improve. You can improve your life, that of your family and friends, whatever the hell you want. Opportunity begets opportunity, and you’ll have this self-improvement/world-improvement attitude that’s so powerful it even begins to bother me!
At whatever time you’re reading this, think about one that you want to do one day to improve your health. It could be as simple as calling someone you need to catch up with, or drinking an extra glass of water each day. Maybe it’s going for a walk, or hitting a new PR in the gym. Whatever it is don’t do it later, do it now:
Harold Gibbons 
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