Health and Fitness Goals in a Financial Recession

Most of the world is heading into or at the very least getting a love tap from a global recession in 2023.

This is pretty bad news for luxury spends and splurges, eating out and your personal fitness guru.

What hurts most when the purse strings cinch inward is the quick revert from “I am a woman with many goals” to “I’m just going to try doing this on my own” or worse yet; “I can’t currently afford my goals bye-bye”.

We all know what is likely to happen next. 

Could I give you a different perspective?

Whether you can or can not afford a personal trainer, gym class, or fitness retreat, this is not the reason why you can’t get what you want.

I believe getting your goal comes down to 4 main factors:

1. Are you ready for change?

2. Is it a priority? Can you prioritise your goal when unexpected things occur?

3. Are you clear on what you want? 

4. How self-efficacious are you willing to be?

1. What level is your readiness to change?

A better question than ‘what can I afford?’ is ‘Am I ready for this?’ You’d be surprised how many people say they want something but equally provide reasons as to why they cant. In the coaching world, we refer to this as ‘change talk’ and ‘sustain talk’ and we can pick up on the cues without a client explicitly deciding whether they are ready for not.

Source: Portico

As you can gather, the ‘buts’ get in the way of a hopeful future vision.

TLDR 1: Whether you can afford the tools to get your goal or not is irrelevant if you are thinking and speaking in a way that reinforces your current behaviours.

2. What do your other commitments look like in the next 1-3-6-12 months?

If you could list your top 5 priorities in order right now, what would they be?

Where does your health goal sit? 

What if you fall sick, a family member dies, you change jobs, move house or go on holiday?

Are you still willing to perform the actions, habits and behaviours to get your goal?

When your goal does not take a high priority it is always going to be something that gets shafted when roadblocks arise. 

TLDR 2: Whether you can afford the tools to get your goal or not is irrelevant if you have not adequately prioritised your goal and planned contingencies

3. Get clear on what you want. When you want it. Why you want it. How you’re going to do it.

Here I’m talking about meeting your own expectations within your budget. It is important to verbalise what you want and decide if the methods you’re choosing to get to that goal are leading you in the right direction. Too often goal getters dive into new years resolutions without considering what all the steps are and what it looks like. If you have a low budget it is reasonable to expect it to take a little longer. You may be limited to fewer solutions and tools to get your goal and you may have to be ok with a more grey/blurred version of your end goal.

TLDR 3: Whether you can afford the tools to get your goal or not is irrelevant if you don’t have a clear vision of the end result. Can you describe it vividly?

4. How self-efficacious are you willing to be?

Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one's own motivation, behaviour, and social environment. Source: APA 

Put simply, those willing and able to do more of the ‘heavy lifting’ can get more results with less financial investment. Higher self-efficacy in fitness for example could be working out from home or going for a run on your own accord. Lower self-efficacy could be paying a premium for a personal trainer 3 times a week to take you through an exercise regime because you don’t have the motivation or purchasing a pre-set meal prep service for all of your meals because you don’t like to cook.

A note here is that you should want to become more self-efficacious in time if not already. This will make affordability and efficacy irrelative instead of reliant. When someone appears motivated and driven, a large part of that is their tendency towards self-efficacy. 

TLDR 4: If you have a small budget for your goals you must be willing and capable of being more self-efficacious from the start.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope I have separated your goals from your budget. Changing for the better shouldn't be a matter of money or only a pursuit when in a position to afford it.

I can understand that sometimes it's just not a priority, and that's ok.

But if the thing you want is the priority you say it is and you've just found yourself staring down the barrel of mortgage repayments and cost of living agony - goals can happen on every budget. So long as you are willing to keep it a priority and prepared to be more self-efficacious. 

A little more context:

I grew up as a recession baby. My parents had 4 girls under the age of 7 when Australia’s last recession hit in 1991. I didn’t see either parent afford the time to do things for their mental or physical health. If they did maybe they would have better coping mechanisms. Maybe they would be fitter into their mid 60s. Maybe their cancers wouldn’t have affected them as they did. This is all circumstantial opinions, mind you.

Studying and making a career in the fitness and health profession I know not to seek the same fate myself so it’s quite painful when you get the break-up text from a client or are completely ghosted and the reason comes down to money. 

I believe that I can help everyone within their budget - So instead of considering professional fitness services as an on/off switch or an all-or-nothing gig... Consider what you want - what you budget is - and what support you can get for what you have.