I work out best in the morning, there’s no doubt about it. I’m at my freshest and most motivated, I like getting my exercise out of the way, and my gym is pretty empty in the morning too. Unfortunately, my casual jobs make it difficult to consistently get up early for the gym.

For whatever reason, working out during the day (say, at 2pm after a shift at work) just doesn’t seem to be an option in my head. Somewhere along the way, in my head, working out in the morning went from the ideal time to work out to the only possible time. As a result, when I can’t make it to the gym in the morning, I won’t go at all.

At the very thought of working out in the afternoon, all sorts of excuses enter my mind; I tell myself I’ll be too tired, too unmotivated, and it will be too busy. But in the last 5 years, I haven’t even given it a try.

That’s why this week, I went to the gym in the afternoon for the first time since high school. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t hard, nor all that different to going in the morning, and I was mostly correct.

On Tuesday, I finished up work at 2pm, got home and had lunch. I knew the next thing on my agenda was going to the gym, and honestly I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect. But I told myself I’d look stupid if I didn’t go and headed to the gym at around 3pm.

With the carpark unusually full and the sun on the other side of the sky, it felt a little strange. The strange vibes continued once I got inside, as I was met with a sea of unfamiliar staff and gym-goers rather than the regulars I usually encounter.

I didn’t let the strange vibes deter me  though, and I went straight into my warmup. Once I got going, it was business as usual, and I ended up having a pretty good workout.

The difficult part of this entire endeavour wasn’t really the ‘workout’ part (I had more energy at that time of day than I expected to), but the ‘encouraging myself to actually go’ part. Once I did that, it was pretty easy.

Did I enjoy it and would I do it again? It was a 40 degree day and I had a raging headache during my workout, so I didn’t exactly enjoy the experience. However, I would definitely do it again, as I’ve finally broken the stupid notion in my head that I can’t work out in the afternoon.

What did I learn? This experience taught me that often we play things up in our heads to be ridiculous or out of the question, when in reality they are perfectly plausible possibilities. Sometimes we need to take a microscope to our routines and really assess why we do (or don’t do) certain things.