We Know What to Do. So Why Don’t We Do It?
I’ve talked a lot on this show about purpose, ownership, and showing up as your best self. But there’s a foundational layer underneath all of that we don’t talk about enough — and that’s taking care of the physical vessel you’ve been given to do all of it.
My conversation with Marcus Gates, founder of Thriving Lives Fitness, went places I didn’t fully expect. We started talking about fitness and ended up talking about belief systems, childhood conditioning, self-worth, and confidence. Which, honestly, tracks — because those things are more connected than most of us want to admit.
The Belief System You Inherited
Marcus made a point early in our conversation that stuck with me: a lot of our relationship with fitness and food was shaped before we had any say in it. The way your parents talked about eating. The PE teacher who made exercise feel like a punishment. The low-fat, Kate Moss era that gave an entire generation a warped idea of what “fit” was supposed to look like.
Those stories are still running in the background for a lot of us. And until we actually look at them and ask whether they’re serving us, they’re going to keep driving the bus.
Motivation Is a Terrible Strategy
Here’s the thing nobody wants to hear: waiting until you feel motivated to work out is a losing game. Marcus put it plainly — motivation ebbs and flows, and if you only show up on the days you feel like it, you’re never going to build any momentum.
What works instead is action. You start the thing, even when you don’t feel like it, even if it’s just 10 minutes. And that action creates more motivation than any inspirational quote ever could.
I’ve lived this firsthand. I spent years being unable to get myself to a gym unless someone was going to notice if I didn’t show up. Now I can get myself downstairs to swing kettlebells at 6pm on a Wednesday. That shift didn’t happen overnight — but it did happen because I kept stacking small actions until consistency replaced motivation as the thing keeping me going.
The Confidence That Bleeds Over
This is the part I most wanted to talk about, because I wrote an entire chapter of Scary Good about it without fully realizing it while I was writing. Building confidence through physical action is real, and it transfers.
Learning to ski at 41 after 20 years of snowboarding. Getting on a mountain bike at 42 after a failed attempt 13 years earlier. Every physical milestone I unlocked gave me something I could carry into other areas of life — a quiet proof that I could still do hard things, that I could still learn, that I could still grow.
Marcus shared a story about a client who lost 100 pounds and started asking people on dates. Not because the weight loss changed who he was — but because showing up for himself every day built a foundation of self-trust he’d never had before. That’s what physical care actually does when you let it.
The Foundation Matters
Your physical health is not a side project. It is the thing that gives you energy to do your work well, capacity to be present for the people you love, and stamina to sustain impact over a long haul. If you’re not taking care of it, you’re operating with a depleted foundation — and everything built on top of it will feel harder than it has to.
Marcus’s practical advice: whatever system keeps you from missing meetings and doctor’s appointments — add your workouts and meal prep to that same system. Build a routine that works on your hardest weeks, not your easiest. Start where you are. And prove to yourself that you can start on a Tuesday.
Find Marcus at thrivinglivesfitness.com or on Instagram @thrivinglivesfitness.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Gerren Power on No More Mondays → careerbenders.com/episode-263
