Have you noticed the emotional difference between how you feel after exercising hard versus after watching TV?

Comparing, say, rowing for 5,016 meters in 20 minutes, at over 900 calories per hour with watching TV or browsing the web for 20 minutes seems obvious but let’s compare anyway.

Rowing, you want to stop soon after you started. It’s a relief to stop.

TV, you can end up watching for hours. It’s easy to keep watching.

After rowing, I’m glad I did it.

I often regret watching TV.

It’s valuable to learn to choose rowing, or exercising in general. It’s easier not to think about it.

Everyone has time to exercise, no matter how much they say they don’t.

The hard part isn’t finding 20 minutes, tt’s choosing to challenge oneself.

You can make that choice a habit, which is why I take cold showers. I don’t find the cold showers get easier, but my skill to choose to do something hard develops.

Each time stepping into the stream of cold water develops that skill at no cost in time, money, or any other resource. Just a few minutes of discomfort for benefit to everything in life.

• ← My spectrum of distaste and avoidance
• 100,000 burpees →