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354        <h1 class="single-title">When you don&#x27;t want to do it: make it easier</h1>
355            <div class="single-excerpt">
356                Ease as an antidote to dread.
357            </div>
358            <div class="single-meta">
359                <span class="single-meta-item single-meta-length">
360                    1 min read
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365                        <a class="post-tag post-tag-avoidance" href="/tag/avoidance/">
366                            Avoidance
367                        </a>
368                    </span>
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371    <div class="single-content gh-content kg-canvas">
372        <p>I recently stopped going to the gym. Again.</p>
373<p>When I thought about going, I felt dread.</p>
374<p>Dread about getting ready, driving to the gym, doing a full workout, changing, driving back and showering. Dread of investing well over 1 hour to do all this. Dread of doing this again in a couple of days.</p>
375<p>I soon realized that the reason I felt this dread was that my workout typically takes 45-50 minutes.</p>
376<p>I rarely felt energized enough to workout for that long.</p>
377<p>The solution was simple: Cut down the time it takes to workout.</p>
378<p>Together with my trainer, I divided my 50-minute workout into 3 smaller workouts. One that has only the 3 most essential exercises. One that has 3 more and one that has all the rest.</p>
379<p>This allows me to exercise for anywhere between 10 and 60 minutes, depending on how I feel. If I really don't want to go, I do my 3 exercises and return home. If I feel like I can do more after those 3, I can do 3 more. They just add 10 more minutes. And when I feel like I really want to get after it, I can workout for the whole 60 minutes.</p>
380<p>While this might seem like a small change, it had a huge impact.</p>
381<p>The dread vanished.</p>
382<p>If I want to go to the gym, I can go for 10 minutes. That's more than fine with me on most days. It's also all I need to do to get a workout in. That's small and achievable.</p>
383<p>The bigger lesson I've learned from this is that when I don't want to do something, I should make it easier until I do.</p>
384<p>A 45-minute workout filled me with dread, so I avoided it.</p>
385<p>A 10-minute workout feels easy and good, so I do it.</p>
386<p>Of course, this change isn't limited to doing something for a shorter duration.</p>
387<p>It can mean to do it with less expectations, with less money, or less intensity.</p>
388<p>The key point is to make what you dread about it easier until you want to do it.</p>
389<p>So, the next time you don't want to do something, make it easier until you do.</p>
390
391            <span class="single-meta-item single-meta-date">
392                <time datetime="2025-12-31">
393                    31st of December 2025
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