Why you won’t see a lot of selfies on my social media

I had it pointed out to me the other day, that I don’t post a lot of selfies on my website or social media. I suppose it’s true that for some people, seeing the results of a person’s efforts can help motivate them to continue on their own journey. I expect for a lot of people, it’s just a bit of eye candy, a chance to become stimulated by a bit of tight fitting clothes or half-naked person on their screen. For me, personally, when I go to these social media feeds of ‘fitness influencers’, I am completely turned off and demotivated. Those people up there, even the ‘normal’ people showing themselves off, are not living a life that most people can (or want) to live.

It takes a lot of time, dedication and sacrifice to achieve the hollywood or fitness professional ‘look’. These people aren’t living the life that most of us would want to live, not to mention all of the tricks of lighting, makeup, unhealthy body stress, etc that people are using to get those photos that get so many likes.

So yeah, they may be ‘sexy’, but they’re not inspirational to me. I find them the opposite, completely de-motivational. I know I’m not ever going to look like them without having to make a lot of changes in my life. I’m not willing to give up things I like. For me, I want to see and celebrate a normal person’s achievement – a person that might have children to take care of, a full time job that doesn’t give them the flexibility to head off to the gym whenever they want. The person that has to deal with their house and car repairs by themselves, perhaps also having to fit in cpd and career progression, make & keep friendships, and fit in a relaxing hobby. I want to see the people that like to order the occasional pizza or chinese takeaway and aren’t scared of a Full Scottish breakfast. They like to binge Netflix in a way that they can talk about a programme more than ‘that was so good. I really enjoyed it.’. And perhaps also spend time doing volunteer work.

And with all of that said, I do spend more time on fitness and nutrition than most people would want to(or be able to). So while I reduced my waistline down quite a bit, and put on some muscle, I’m not going to be a realistic example. I don’t know how having photos of me is going to motivate anyone, particularly not the people I’m wanting to focus on helping.

I’ll close out with the second part of my reasoning. It’s the fact that I’m a private person. I’ve always been a private person. I take criticism to heart and I struggle to accept compliments as genuine. I’m not going to open myself up to the internet in that way. And I think other introverts are going to be the same. We are the geeks that are used to spending more time to themselves, and uncomfortable asking for help for fear of looking stupid and failing at what they want to accomplish. I’ve gained so much confidence through my fitness, and I’ve had help from some amazing people, but they were still people that I felt couldn’t ‘get’ me, as they were talking about sports, etc. I really want to help people that want to make a change, but aren’t comfortable approaching someone that you’d normally find posting about their fitness.

Maybe that makes sense, maybe not, but the people wanting these body pics have a plethora of people to follow. I don’t need to be one more. I’m here for the people like me, that just want to be a fitter and healthier version of themselves.