The value of achievement lies in the achieving. – Albert Einstein

I’m not typically one of those “getting there is half the fun” types. I want to get to wherever and commence the fun-making with a quickness. Admittedly, this is colored by several years spent living a solid two hours’ drive from most of what qualified as fun, and a propensity for long-distance relationships. Getting there was a pain in the butt, a trial to be endured, another tedious grind; even during the height of the fall color in New England, it was merely a prettier iteration of the reviled FedEx-type Quest.

Fitness is the exception. There are the milestones along the way. There may be cathartic or chemically-interesting sessions. There are the little things you notice along the way that reaffirm that you’re doing the right thing. You’ll begin feeling better. Fitter.

And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Ethan has committed one of the classic motivational non-blunders. Well, I can’t say that with complete authority, since his brother may, in fact, be Sicilian, and death could potentially be on the line.  But, no matter! First, we dri– wait, sorry, got carried away there for a second.

A goal is a dream with a deadline.
– Unknown

Hopefully, we’re collectively smart enough not to let our mouths write checks that our bodies can’t cash. In the chance we’re not, getting to that point becomes awfully motivational.

Bruce Lee's statue, guarding Hong Kong

Before we get to the titular quote, we bring you this romantic Office Space interlude:

Peter Gibbons: I wanna take you out to dinner, and then I wanna go back to my apartment and watch Kung Fu. Do you ever watch Kung Fu?
Joanna: I love Kung Fu.
Peter Gibbons: Channel 39.
Joanna: Totally.
Peter Gibbons: You should come over and watch Kung Fu tonight.

Now, on with the show.

Take what is useful, reject what is useless.

– Bruce Lee (paraphrasing Jiddu Krishnamurti*)

Fitness, much like gaming or coding, is a process of learning and subsequently refining what you know. Early on, before we’re confident and comfortable, we’re apt to avoid getting in over our heads. Later, once we’ve got a feel for things, we begin looking to folks who’ve been there before, seeking guidance, advice, or, dare we say, +WIS.

You’re the disease. I’m the cure.

- Marion Cobretti (Cobra, 1986)

I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. … Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we… are the cure.

- Agent Smith, The Matrix (1999)

It’s reassuring to know that such disparate theatrical toughs are looking to cure whatever it is that ails us, at least as a society. Well, half the time, anyways. Agent Smith seems to deviate just a tad from that whole “first, do no harm” dictat of the Hippocratic Oath, though.

In any case, what brought these particular Words of +WIS to mind today was new research that dovetails with the recent tendency to consider obesity as an actual disease, and treat it with cancer therapy techniques. In a nutshell, the chemical (branded “Zafgen,” which to this observer has potentially unfortunate echoes of “zaftig”) starves the body’s fat stores of blood, causing them to weaken and shrink.

Get up, stand up.

- Bob Marley

Short and sweet. Of course, if you’re not into reggae, you can go with R.E.M.’s exhortation to “stand in the place where you are,” or mimic some post-apocalyptic plague life and do The Stand.

Whatever mode of motivation you choose, try to make it a point to get up from your seat — whether it’s at your desk at the office, your computer at home, or the couch doing some console gaming or just watching TV — at least once an hour. There’s a semi-insidious bit of badness that comes from our seat-centric lifestyle: short and tight hip flexors.

Fortunately, the simple act of standing up and moving around a little will help keep them from getting too bound up, and nobody’s apt to look at you funny for doing this throughout the workday. If you need a subtle reminder, you can set your PDA or computer to pop up a note, or play a snippet of one of these songs, once an hour. To geek it up a bit and add a frission of randomness, you can roll 3d20 and do your standing at the sum of those three, so it’ll change a little bit every day.

This, however, might get you those weird looks we were talking about earlier.