Every January the gym is packed. By February it’s the same eleven people. Be one of the eleven.

Almost everybody can start. The crowd thins a few weeks in, when it stops being novel and turns into ordinary work, and that is the entire filter. Nothing about the ones who stay is exceptional. They kept turning up after the feeling that started them wore off, which it always does, for everyone.

Plan for the week your motivation leaves, because it is coming. Decide now what the smallest acceptable version looks like on those days. Turning up and doing half is what keeps you in the count.