The Hardest Part is Showing Up

I'm at the gym waiting for a buddy of mine to show up and workout with me. After a long day at work I didn't want to workout. I wanted to go home and rest or basically do anything but exercise. However, I made plans with my friend already and I didn't want to experience that feeling you get when you break a promise to yourself, so I somehow made it to the gym. Sitting here in the gym's lobby waiting for my friend to arrive I remembered a quote I heard before, although I am not sure who said it originally. I tried to search for the quote on Google but it seems that it is attributed to many individuals.

"The hardest part is showing up."

- Anonymous

Now that I'm at the gym I don't feel this desire to leave. I've already broken the main part of my internal resistance to working out by just showing up to the gym. I know that I will have to have an intense workout session, but that's perfectly fine now that I'm already at the gym. It's hard to explain and it seems to not make a lot of sense because the difficult part is still ahead of me. I've only completed the easy preliminary task. However, that easy preliminary task seems to have been the most important part. If I just show up to the gym I'll likely work out. It's not likely that I'll show up and then just get up and leave. Maybe it's because getting up and leaving will mean a change of course and a change of plans. Maybe that's what the difficult part is: actually getting started. Once I'm already at the gym inertia is acting in my favor. To leave the gym now would require me to go against that inertia.

I'll keep this little insight in mind next time I have a difficult task to do that I don't want to do. Obviously the task has to be of a particular variety for the principle to be effective, but it is easier to think about just showing up than thinking about the entirety of the task in front of you.