Top Shelf Perspective

I once saw an incredible explanation of context and consumer perspective from a marketing point of view that I think can help us in the gym. The example was of a store shelf with two bottles of wine. One bottle was something like $14 and the other was $21. The speaker asked the audience to consider that given that they are not particularly educated about wine or motivated beyond needing to buy a bottle of wine for a casual dinner party, which bottle would they choose?

Nearly everyone chose the $14 bottle of wine.

The speaker then reframed the scenario. The shelf now had a $14 bottle of wine, a $21 bottle of wine, and a $36 bottle of wine. When asked which bottle of wine they’d choose, many more people chose the $21 bottle of wine.

Nothing changed but their frame of mind. In the first example, $21 was a premium and without specific motivation to be in the market for “the best” there was no real incentive to choose it. However, when we reframe one’s perspective with the expensive bottle, the $21 bottle seemed very appropriate.

The reason I’m sharing this story with you isn’t to sell you wine, it’s to open your mind and accelerate your desire to improve. If you’re comparing yourself to the amazing men and women at the gym, you may slow your own progress, especially if you’re a $20 bottle of wine thinking that you’re nearing “top shelf” status.

For example, we’re hosting a powerlifting seminar Jan. 31^st taught, in part, by a woman with a 770lb back squat. How’s that for putting a $20,000 bottle of wine on the shelf?

If you’re operating with a growth mindset, this humbling news won’t demotivate you. It will invigorate you! The reason for me sharing this is to put more opportunity in your mind and to remove any fences you’re building around what is strong and who is fit.

If the end of the fitness road is the fastest times and the heaviest weights on our local whiteboard, you might be selling yourself short.

Keep charging! Oh,and life’s too short to drink cheap wine.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach

 

[Photography By Lorenzo Hodges]