Certainty feels like safety. It usually isn't.

Fitness culture sells certainty. The people who succeed long term tend to be comfortable without it.

I'm about to attempt to sound cultured for a minute, so bear with me.

French philosopher Voltaire once said:

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

Now, quoting 18th century philosophers in a fitness newsletter does risk making me sound like someone who owns a smoking jacket and reads books in cafés for attention.

But I think he was onto something.

Because certainty is something we all look for.

We want certainty because certainty feels safe. We want the best diet. The perfect exercise. The missing piece everyone else seems to know about. If I can just find the right approach, then maybe progress finally becomes simple.

And fitness culture absolutely feeds that search for certainty.

You'll constantly see things like: "Why carbs are killing your weight loss." "The five exercises every runner must do." "Why every man should deadlift."

The interesting thing is that there's usually a grain of truth inside those ideas. Some people probably would benefit from eating fewer carbs. Some exercises are genuinely useful for runners. Strength matters. A lot.

But a grain of truth isn't the same as a universal rule.

The problem is that certainty feels like safety. And when you're confused, tired, or just fed up of not making progress — safety is exactly what you're looking for. So we grab onto the idea that sounds most convincing and hold it tightly. Because the alternative — accepting that it depends, that there are trade-offs, that the answer might change — feels exhausting.

But certainty doesn't make the messiness of real life go away. It just makes you less equipped to deal with it.

And human beings are far too messy for rigid ideology.

Sleep changes things. Stress changes things. Kids get sick. Work gets busy. Injuries flare up. Real life has a habit of interrupting even the most "perfect" plan.

Which is why good coaching usually isn't about rigid rules or pretending there's one perfect answer for everyone. It's about finding an approach that works reasonably well for you, then adjusting as life changes.

That can feel uncomfortable because it leaves some uncertainty. There's no magic formula. No guaranteed perfect system. Just principles, experimentation and consistency over time.

But maybe that's the point.

The goal was never to eliminate doubt completely.

It's to have enough clarity to take action, while staying flexible enough to adapt when reality inevitably pushes back.

Turns out, being okay with uncertainty isn't a weakness in your approach.

It might actually be the approach.

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P.S. If you enjoyed this week's Thursday Three, please share it with a friend.

Thanks,

Jamie