Julius Erving said, “the key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.”
One thing is for certain, as the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA, he certainly knew how to keep growing in the physical part of life.
Successful people have this innate need to be in the best shape of their lives.
It’s almost like success and fitness go hand in hand. Perhaps one doesn’t deserve success without going through the trenches of the gym.
The truth is that it’s much deeper than that.
Being physically fit represents something for successful people.
In fact, it contributes to their success in many ways with some of those ways encompassing ideology while others are more tangible.
In this guide, we’ll explore several of the reasons that successful people have a fitness habit.
What Fitness Represents to Successful People
Successful people are a group of people that tend to be elevated above the rest.
This doesn’t mean they’re better than everyone else.
It just means they’re better at life than everyone else. They have unwavering standards, and they will tackle life until they achieve their goals.
When people think about success, they tend to think about the tangible parts of it – money, careers, relationships, material things.
These things are mere icons of success.
They are the rewards that a successful person collects along the way. True success is an internal reward.
The journey to get there is an internal struggle. Even when a successful person reaches their goals, it’s an internal struggle to stay successful.
A lot of people (the ones that aren’t successful) simply don’t have the mental stamina to do what it takes to be successful.
Sure, they have the desire to be successful, but they don’t have the mental tools to do it.
How the Mental State of Mind Relates to Fitness
Being successful is a mental state of mind, and it’s all-encompassing. Successful people aren’t just successful at a portion of their lives.
They can’t be – they don’t have the mental tools to not be successful. A truly successful person couldn’t be unsuccessful even if they tried.
The mental tools that lead to success drive a person to overachieve in every part of their life, including their physical health.
Sure, there are tangible reasons to be physically fit, but the main and most important reason is that successful people know that they can’t be successful if their health is on the decline.
Being physically fit is a strategic move in the game of life and since a successful person has every intention of winning that game, you can bet they’re going to stay in the best shape possible.
A great example of this can be seen in celebrities.
It’s hard to make it to the top of the entertainment industry, but people do it.
Successful people do it.
Many of them are already in shape, but there are a few who make it to the cusp of their careers while being out of shape.
However, right before they hit superstar status, the same thing happens every single time – these overweight, out of shape people hire a nutritionist and a trainer (some may cheat and hire a plastic surgeon), and almost seemingly before their fans’ very eyes, they emerge out of a dark hole transformed into a physically fit celebrity.
That’s because they know they can’t truly be successful while being out of shape.
They can’t keep up with the other celebrities like that.
Examples of people who have done this are Star Jones, Rebel Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Adele, Jennifer Hudson, and Jonah Hill.
The comedian, Mo’Nique, advocated for overweight women and ended up slimming down anyway.
The point of this is to point out that fitness isn’t something successful people do – fitness is a part of success.
You don’t get to pick and choose what parts of success you want. You’re either successful or you’re not.
How Exercise Impacts Success
While being physically fit is an ideological part of success, exercise is what directly impacts the journey.
It’s no secret that people who exercise tend to be more successful in life.
A big part of that is because of the impact that exercise has on their mind and body.
Exercise Gives Them The Mood to Succeed
Exercise causes your body to release endorphins. These are groups of hormones secreted within the brain and nervous system.
They act on the opiate receptors in the brain to boost pleasure and reduce pain.
In other words, endorphins make you feel good which is why they’re often referred to as happy hormones.
More importantly, endorphins help to fight off feelings of anxiety and depression.
Research has shown that successful people can easily get depressed.
Some research even goes so far as suggesting that a gene that contributes to a person’s depression is also the gene that contributes to their success. It’s hard to focus on success when you’re depressed.
People who exercise often are consistently getting dosed with these feel good hormones. That means they’re constantly fighting off the possibility of being depressed.
If you want to look at it in a glass half-full manner, exercising keeps people in the right mood to succeed.
Energy
Being successful takes a lot of work.
There is so much to do, so much to keep up with, and only 24 hours in a day.
They must have energy to get through all these tasks during the day. Sure, sleep and healthy food gives a person energy, but exercise boosts energy to the max.
A person wouldn’t even have to do a hard session at the gym for energy.
Short bursts of physical activity can wake you up enough to focus on the task at hand.
For example, many people take a walk during their lunch break to get energy for the next half of their work day.
Exercise helps to circulate oxygen and nutrients throughout the body faster.
This can help a person get a boost of energy that they need to get going (or keep going).
Even if they push themselves hard in the gym, after they stop sweating and catch their breath, they’ll find themselves energized and ready to tackle the next task.
Successful People Need to Look Their Best
When a person looks good, they feel good.
As discussed in the previous section, feeling good puts you in the right mood for success.
However, looking good goes further than how it makes the person feel.
Another way to look at this is when other people think a person looks good, that person tends to have more opportunities open to them.
Research has shown that attractive people are more successful than unattractive people.
They get better jobs, get promoted faster, and even get higher raises.
According to Daniel Hamermesh, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, attractive people earn around 4% more money than unattractive people.
Another consideration is that companies value attractive people more than unattractive people. Dario Maestripieri Ph.D., a professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago says that companies feel like attractive employees bring in more money, or are more efficient, so they give them better opportunities.
This leads to faster promotions, or in other words, faster success.
Being in top physical shape is how a person looks their best.
Their clothes fit better, they’re healthier, and they look more professional.
They look like they care about themselves. Successful people know this, so it encourages them to exercise often.
Fit People Don’t Get Sick as Often as People Who Are Out of Shape
Getting sick means that a person must stop what they’re doing in life and get better.
This can impact success in many ways.
Sick people lose valuable time, miss opportunities, and possibly even set themselves back a few steps from their goals.
Successful people are fully aware of the implications of getting sick so they do everything they can to avoid illnesses.
Research shows that regular exercise can keep people from getting sick as often as other people.
Exercise causes the blood to flow faster through the body.
This allows red and white blood cells to make it around the body faster which means they can catch bacteria and viruses faster.
This speedy circulation only lasts a few hours after exercise, but if a person has a fitness habit, these few hours will gradually be extended.
Successful people are so busy trying to reach their goals that they don’t have time to be sick.
Therefore, it’s safe to say that exercise not only keeps them healthy but helps them to manage their time.
Exercise Reduces Stress
All that goal chasing can leave a person feeling stressed out at the end of the day. It’s good stress, but it’s still stress.
Exercise is a way that people can relieve stress after a long day.
It may seem strange that after a long, tiring day a person would have a fitness habit that would tire them out even more.
However, as mentioned already, exercise gives a person energy. It also helps to melt away mental stress.
The benefits of exercise to relive stress is no secret. It’s been well-documented with numerous studies and decades of research.
While exercise boosts endorphins, it also decreases hormones responsible for stress like cortisol and adrenaline.
Exercising is an effective way for everyone to relieve stress whether they’re successful or not.
Successful People Want to Live Long Enough to Achieve and Enjoy Their Goals
These days, there are so many diseases and conditions that come from a sedentary lifestyle.
Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even mental health problems like depression are all examples of what can come out of a sedentary lifestyle.
Pair that with an unhealthy diet and people are literally shaving years off their lives.
Studies show that the average life expectancy of an American would be increased by over three years if they spent less than three hours a day sitting and less than two hours a day watching television.
This statistic is for the average American. Many people will have to do more than sit less.
They need to get up and move a lot.
Successful people want to be able to enjoy their success at the end of the journey.
It would be a shame to do all that hard work and then be too ill to reap the rewards at the end.
The simple solution that will prevent this from happening is exercise and successful people are fully aware of this.
Therefore, exercising is an integral part of their lives.
Final Thoughts on Why Successful People Have a Fitness Habit
There can be a million and one reasons listed for why successful people have a fitness habit.
What is certain among all of them is that they have this habit because they can’t find themselves being successful in life and not in health.
It simply doesn’t add up.
In many ways, fitness mimics success.
A fitness journey is just like any other journey for any other goal.
If a person cannot be disciplined in the most important journey of their life – staying healthy so they can live well – it’s ludicrous to think that they would be disciplined in any other journey.
In conclusion, a fitness habit is like breathing to successful people.
They just do it without thinking about it too much.
In the end, it’s a catalyst that helps them reach their full potential, which they likely couldn’t have reached without a fitness habit.
