You See Everything

I was talking to someone this week about their schedule being crazier than ever. After a recent job change, their work day is significantly longer than it used to be. Going to the gym six days a week has turned into maybe three or four days, which has sparked some insecurity.

“What will everyone at the gym think of me if I don’t go as often anymore? Do I look lazy? Will someone give me a hard time about slacking?”  Going to the gym less is a product of working more, which is far from laziness. As humans, it’s natural to be concerned with how we’re perceived. We’ve evolved, but some things will never change. Cavemen or modern humans, it doesn’t matter. We’re all social beings. We want to fit in, be accepted, and add value to our group.

The interesting thing about modern mankind is our ability to judge others based on micro-moments. We can see a 15 second video or a single social media post and feel like we know someone. What they’re doing, what we think about that, what they should be doing, and what we think about that are all judgements we have no business making at all, let alone in a snap.

There’s one thing we learn in school that carries through every class at every grade level: show your work. Don’t just give an answer or make a claim. Show how you got to that answer, back it up with evidence, or you can’t be considered correct or credible. So soon we forget!

One hour of time spent in the gym or outside of the gym is not enough evidence to support the claim that someone is lazy. What about the other 23 hours of the day? Others do not see everything. You see everything. You are you the only person who can draw legitimate evidence based claims about your character because you are the only one with all of the information! Therefore, the conclusions drawn by others are not credible. Can they affect you? Of course. Do they have to? You get to decide.