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Comment by copperwater69 | Hacker News Reader

A problem I had was letting perfect be the enemy of good. I wanted the perfect workout program and wait for my fridge to be stocked with the right foods, the day to be correct so my arms won't be tired when driving and my leg won't be too sore to push in the clutch. Eventually I just did it and sorted out those other details later.

If you're in the same position I recommend immediate action. Like just go do 50 squats or 10 pushups or something. It feels good and in a month you won't have excuses for why you didn't start - you'll have progress.

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> and wait for my fridge to be stocked with the right food

This also relates to another human brain screwup I was talking to a friend about recently. They wanted to learn to do something but were waiting to take a class when there were all sorts of good free learning resources available for that skill. Sometimes your mind doesn't want to do something and you rationalize "okay I'll do it when I have X Y and Z" but really you're trying to ignore the fact that the only thing holding you back is that you really don't feel like putting that work in, and having the perfect workout or starting a class won't necessarily change that. Sometimes we need to tell our brains to shut up and just do the thing.

>"okay I'll do it when I have X Y and Z"

This is pretty strongly related to a desire for consumerism. Most of us constantly make the mistake of thinking "I'm going to buy X which will make me start doing Y" when we already have the tools to do Y even if they are somewhat limited. Really we should only be considering buying something when we are using what we have to the fullest extent but feel an upgrade would be an improvement.

Done is better than perfect.

“A problem I had was letting perfect be the enemy of good”

That seems to be a big problem in the West as far as healthy living goes. People often either do nothing or they get obsessed with finding ever better methods until they get exhausted and get back to doing nothing . A little of bit very pedestrian exercises and eating reasonably ok food goes a long way. No need for being perfect.

I think it's the west's obsession with exceptionalism in media. It can make people feel like nothing but perfect or better is good enough, and they can feel like others will think they are silly for trying yet not being perfect.

Similar self sabotage happens when someone with good taste in a topic tries to get started in the topic themselves. They have the eye for what is good, and what they produce isn't good yet, so they give up.

The best advice I can give for fitness is to hold a stubborn conviction that the gym is for getting fit, not being fit. You are exactly where you should be if getting fit is your goal, and almost everyone there was or is in the same boat.

Great advice. The goal I set myself is consistency of doing any exercise, this builds, eventually, habits and over time you can gradually increase the quality/amount/whatever.

There is a huge variation in people's physical capacity as well as 'motivation' - find out what works for your body by trying different things and finding out what you can do consistently. Consistency as a focus helps avoid a big limiter which is injury, which often comes from doing too much too soon. Be prepared that this process might take a long time.

From my tiny experience, the fastest way to perfect is imperfect. Only reality will feed you the important cues. Otherwise it's fantasy.

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