Set Sail Even Keel

“Even keel” is a nautical term used to describe a vessel moving through the water in a fashion that maintains a level trajectory. In a contemporary manner, “even keel” has become a figure of speech that describes a mindset devoid of emotional highs and lows. I envision ancient stoic philosopher’s fist pumping in their graves when it’s used to describe this emotional stability.

I often joke in the seminars that I get to teach to coaches that coaches need to remember that people don’t join gyms when things are going great. People don’t come in and say, “I’m interested in your services. You see, I’m so lean, so strong, and generally dialed in that I figured I’d share some of my monthly wage with you guys. Deal?”

That’s never the case.

Most often, people are especially motivated. They’re so dissatisfied they want to make a change. With this basic truth, we can begin to recognize in ourselves the tendency to get excited. We ride the seas of emotion. Fitness can temporarily benefit from these kinds of surges of emotion, but I’d caution you to consider that an even keel mentality pays greater dividends than a mentality that is riding particularly high.

Anecdotally, let’s just say I’ve seen countless people get more excited about fitness than I, yet very few are still around. In fact, fitness doesn’t really do it for me, but I’ll bet that I’ll practice it at a high level forever (SEE: “even keel”). Try to remove the shine from the idea of tackling your fitness journey. While I don’t want to be a buzz-kill if you’re on a fitness high, it’s important to note that what goes up, must come down.

Want to ride your vessel into the sunset? Go even keel.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach