“I’m 99% in.”
“I’m going to do it, I just need the day to think about it.”
“I’m definitely committed, I just want to check my schedule for a start date and I’ll get back to you.”
If you are receiving this blog, there is a decent chance that we’ve spoken on the phone. That’s because a large percentage of our subscribers are people who have reached out about joining the gym. And step one in joining the gym is speaking to Kyle or me.
Every one of these calls ends up with one of three outcomes.
The first is that you sign up for a 2 week trial. This typically means that you already knew you wanted to give the gym a try, were looking for some more details and liked what you heard.
The second is that you set up a tour of the gym. You’re interested but want to check out the place first to either see the space or feel the vibes or even just make sure the place is real.
The last is you decide the gym isn’t for you. The training isn’t what you are looking for. The location doesn’t work. The price isn’t what you were expecting. You realize my Dad jokes are even more annoying when you actually hear them rather than just read them and decide you can’t put up with this on a weekly basis. All very fair points.
At least, in a perfect world, we’d end up with one of these three outcomes.
But, unfortunately, there is a fourth outcome to add to the list. The one I call “decision purgatory”. Also known as stalling, wheel spinning, fear of making a decision or, my personal favorite, bullshitting.
The quotes above are the tell-tale signs that we have fallen into this dreaded fourth category.
I’ve thought about this quite a bit and there are four reasons why people stall out faster than Sully’s airplane.
The first, and most admirable reason, is that you are just not someone who is going to make a decision right away, even if you know the answer. You are committed to giving it 24 hours. Doesn’t matter what it is. I could tell you the gym is free and we’ll give you a Lamborghini and a lifetime supply of Cinnabon if you join and you’d still be like “Sounds pretty good, let me get back to you.”
The second is that you are doing it under the guise of either being polite or you are just fearful of any type of confrontation. We spoke, we connected and now you either feel bad telling me no. Or your pride doesn’t allow you to tell me the truth or you think you are being polite by kicking the can down the road rather than being straight up.
I’m here to tell you that if you fall into this category what you are doing is not kind and polite but actually a bit mean. Because at best you are getting my hopes up that you’ll join the gym and I get to witness you get in great shape and at worst you are setting me up for follow up calls and texts that don’t get answered.
And that isn’t kind. I don’t deserve it. I’m a nice guy who always pets a dog in an elevator and tips my Uber driver.
The last is that you are just someone who fears making any decisions at all. So you don’t. You are the person I am talking to for the rest of this blog.
(And, yes, I know that I said there were 4 types of people earlier and I only listed 3. But what do you expect? I’m a trainer. I only know how to count from 8 to 10).
I’m not sure if I stole this from David Perrell or Tim Ferris or maybe someone else (?) but there are three types of decisions you can make. A hat decision. A haircut decision. And a tattoo decision.
A hat decision is, well, just like wearing a hat. You pop it on and if you don’t like it, you easily take it off. If you are smart, you barely consider these decisions at all because they are just so easy to get out of.
The second is a haircut decision.
Bad haircuts can be fixed and when they can’t, they grow out. You might feel silly and not like yourself when you get a bad haircut and it might take a bit of time for it to grow out but it’s not the end of the world. Unless you get it right before your senior picture and it’s now in your yearbook for generations to see. And, even then, it ultimately becomes a funny reminiscence.
The last is a tattoo decision.
This doesn’t take a lot of explaining. Tattoos are essentially permanent. Sure, you can get it lasered off or covered up but the results aren’t going to be as good as before you got it and it’s going to cost you a lot of money and pain to fix.
The truth is, very few decisions are tattoo decisions. Getting married, having children, starting a business, buying a house, moving to a different state. These are all reversible (except having the kid) but if they are really bad decisions for you they may take a lot of unwinding to get out of them.
It goes without saying that you want to think long and hard before making any tattoo decisions. The direction of your life depends on it.
Hat and haircut decisions are a lot more forgiving and if you are someone who is risk-averse (like me!) I would challenge you to change your relationship to them because it will change your life for the better. Because there is no greater power than taking action.
Kyle is a great example of this. He is - certainly when compared to me - not afraid to try different things in order to drive himself or the business forward.
Does it always work out? No. Oftentimes it doesn’t.
Has it cost us money? Sure. We have definitely paid for things that didn’t yield real knowledge or financial return.
But the answer doesn’t lie in looking at whether or not every decision was the correct one. The answer lies in whether all the risks combined in aggregate move you forward.
I’m not going to lie and tell you that it isn’t scary. Or that it isn’t painful when you’ve spent money and time on something that was a bad decision.
But it is way, way less painful than living a life of stagnation and fear.
Interestingly enough, many of our competitors (from Planet Fitness to Equinox) are actually asking you to make haircut decisions right off the bat. And while the financial commitment is different, a year contract is a year contract.
We, on the other hand, make it a hat decision. Two weeks and if you decide you don’t like it you never have to hear or read my Dad jokes again.
At the risk of coming off as self-serving, if we are on the phone and the only thing stopping you from committing is the fear of making a bad decision, then I implore you to take the leap.
Because even if the gym doesn’t work out, your relationship with making decisions will have changed.
And perhaps that is actually where the training begins.