The Achievement Trap
What we call goals are often negotiations with self-loathing: we pursue visible achievement to become acceptable rather than meaningful engagement to become alive. The fitness industry — like most self-improvement culture — sells us back to ourselves as projects requiring optimisation rather than humans requiring contact. True discipline emerges not from tracking metrics but from discovering purpose: movement that teaches your body to make meaning before your mind catches up, play that rewires instincts because it makes you more alive rather than more measurable. The body needs purpose more than numbers, contact more than control. When your relationship with improvement has zero friction with authentic living, you're not becoming healthier — you're becoming marketable.