It’s Not an Effort Problem
It’s an awareness gap: how blind spots throw midlife fitness off balance.
I’ve always loved numbers. Math just makes sense to me. I’m a very analytical person, and I like being able to quantify something by measuring it, running it through a formula, and getting a result. Abstract reflection has never been my strength, so if something feels vague or conceptual, I tend to go full deer-in-headlights.
A lot of fitness advice lives in that vague zone.
“Listen to what your body is telling you.”
“Find balance.”
“Fix your mindset.”
None of this is wrong. I just noticed that when advice stays abstract, I tend not to act on it. I spend a lot of energy pondering that abstract advice, trying to figure out exactly what it means. I’m so busy overthinking that it causes analysis paralysis, and everything stays exactly the same.
I needed to find a way to quantify midlife fitness. Here’s how I did it.
About three months ago, I came across the Wheel of Life, a simple self-assessment that asks you to score different areas of your life on a scale from 1 to 10, plot those scores on a circle, and connect the dots. The interesting part isn’t the numbers themselves. It’s the shape they create. If the shape is jagged and uneven, you know where to focus your energy to correct the imbalances.
I loved the idea of this because, duh, numbers—so I tried the same approach with midlife fitness. I creatively called it Wheel of Midlife Fitness (again, numbers guy, not marketing guy).
I drew a circle and split it into five sections: movement, strength, nutrition, recovery, and mindset.
I rated each area from 1 to 10 based on how much I move, how strong I think I am, what my diet looks like, how much time and effort I spend recovering, and where my head is at when it comes to my own fitness. A score of 1 meant neglected or broken, and a 10 meant thriving.
When I connected the dots, my wheel was jagged, so a lot of my fitness frustrations made sense. I could see and quantify where I needed to focus my attention over the next few months.
It wasn’t an effort problem. It was an awareness gap.
To ask yourself this week
When it comes to your fitness, which area do you pay the least attention to?
To try this week
Draw the Wheel of Midlife Fitness (or use my template), mark your scores, and connect the dots. Look at the shape and notice where it’s jagged. Pick one low-scoring area and write down one concrete action you can take to support it.
Thanks for reading,
-Marek
The Artist’s Way has a similar kind of wheel that it has you make and reference back to. Always eye opening to see where the wonky bits land - sometimes it’s obvious to me before hand, but other times it isn’t until I see it that I CAN see it.