My second memory of Friends that I’m going to parallel here is from Season 4 – Episode 15 – “The One With All the Rugby”
Amongst other things, Chandler tries to separate from Janice by telling her he’s being transferred to work in Yemen.
When she comes to see him off, rather than admit the truth, he buys a ticket and goes through with boarding the flight.
When we used to do monthly, find out more meetings I used to reference this episode.
And give people a friendly nudge to not be that person that miraculously gets “posted to Yemen” immediately after walking out of the meeting.
The vast majority of people who signed up would, of course, start the programme.
But it wasn’t unheard of for me to get home after the meeting and have messages sent to the page or emails come through with people explaining their change in circumstances that had literally just happened.
Getting relocated through work or having lost their job.
At 9pm on a Tuesday.
And I occasionally get a similar thing now.
People join the four week trial on the phone and then message a few hours later to explain what’s changed since and why they can’t start.
Now, I get it.
It’s called buyers remorse.
We’ve all had it, myself included.
We bought or signed up for something then calmed down a bit and questioned our decision.
The doubts come flooding in.
We wouldn’t be human if that wasn’t the case.
And I’m sure we’ve all had situations where we’ve told a different narrative as a justification for what we’re doing.
It’s hard to admit “I’m scared is going to be too hard”.
Or “I’m worried I’ll be the fattest one there”.
“I’ve tried and failed at things like this before and I’m concerned that this is going to be the same again”
It’s much easier to blame work or some other logistics.
To give a reason that feels inarguable.
I get it.
But knowing that we all have similar concerns at different times is powerful.
It’s normal.
If we went through life never being apprehensive about the challenges in front of us, then I’m pretty sure that would lead to miserable life with little in it that we valued.
It’s okay to be nervous.
It’s okay to have doubts.
Not just at the start of the journey, but at multiple stages along the way.
But having the integrity to be honest with ourselves about these things is the key.
And I’m no Janice.
You can talk to me.
I’m not going to get you to do anything that you don’t want to do.
But I will help you get past sticking points you have with things that you do want to do but are struggling with (www.myrise.co.uk/apply when you’re ready to accept that help as you’ve realised that ‘lone wolfing’ isn’t working).
Much love,
Jon ‘Oh. My. Gawd’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
