Hitting a Wall? How Familiarity Can Stall Your Fitness & Adventure [and How to Fix It]

Last week I heard an interesting concept of "Familiarity" while attending a Sunday Service. The preacher expounded on how familiarity can be both, good and bad, when it comes to our spiritual well-being. This had me thinking about how familiarity can also be a good or a bad thing when it comes to our physical well-being (lets focus on fitness, adventures and sportsmanship). I think you've also experienced that initial burst of excitement for a new workout routine, the thrill of conquering a trail for the first time, or the competitive spirit igniting during a friendly game, right? But what happens when the initial spark fades, and the familiar sets in?

Look at these few researched examples of familiarity in the world: 

High quality teams suffer under a move from their familiar venue, whereas low quality teams seem to benefit (Loughead et al, 2003).Success in sports is largely dependent on the level of familiarity between players and how long they've been together. Successful bands and sports teams often have members who have known each other since their formative years. Cohesion makes a 40% performance differential in sports, while coaching skill accounts for about 2%. Small countries can compete in sports due to the stability and understanding within their teams, despite having fewer resources. Stockbrokers and athletes tend to perform best when they are settled in their roles or teams for a significant period(Robert Kitson, 2020).

So what on earth is FAMILIARITY?

In sports, familiarity refer to the degree to which team members identify themselves based on past work experience. In games, familiarity is what makes something easy to learn. For example, in tactical games, players can be trained with different tactics, and then be switched during a match. So familiarity, is the knowledge, awareness, or understanding of someone or something. This can include facts, information, descriptions, or skills.

Familiarity Effect is a cognitive phenomenon that makes humans more likely to favor familiar things over unfamiliar things. This means that by becoming more familiar with a person, place, object, or idea, you will naturally become more likely to favor it over alternatives.

Familiarity Effect is very common and likely plays a role in almost every decision we make. We are creatures of habit, and our preference for familiarity certainly contributes to this bias. When faced with choosing between two or more alternatives, people are more likely to gravitate toward the option they are familiar with, or at least more familiar with, than the other alternatives. 

Lets say you always workout indoors(in the gym) and I give you an advice to workout outdoors(if you want), the first thing your mind will do is to bring up the 'familiar' images of your gym space or the feeling of comfortability and certainty within the gym wall. This will eventually affect your decision making process ( which might be because of the Familiarity Effect only or other similar heuristics such as 'Choosing by Default, Comfort Zone Bias, Experiential Limitations, Recognition Heuristic' and so on). We often gravitate toward workout routines, environments, medications, and even products that have always worked for us and that we are familiar with.

How Does Familiarity Impact our Journeys?

Familiarity, which is the enemy of novelty, can dampen our motivation and impact various aspects of our athletic and adventurous pursuits:

Let's start with Sportsmanship: The excitement of competition can fade when facing the same opponents or playing in the same environment repeatedly. It can lead to a lack of focus, decreased engagement, and even negative sportsmanship towards familiar competitors.

In Fitness: Routine workouts can become predictable and monotonous, leading to plateaus in progress and a decreased desire to push ourselves. Our bodies adapt to the familiar, demanding new challenges to continue seeing improvement. When it comes to maximizing fitness results, it doesn’t pay to press repeat. Routine breeds boredom — and not just for your mind, your muscles need variety, too. The more familiar your workout becomes, the more efficient you become at it. But the downside to working out on autopilot is monotony.

Passion for Adventure: Exploring new trails or activities brings a sense of novelty and discovery. When we stick to the familiar trails or outdoor activities, the thrill of the unknown fades, potentially leading to a decline in enthusiasm and a sense of stagnation in our adventurous spirit.

On the Wellness Journey: Familiar routines, even healthy ones, can lose their motivating power over time. We might find ourselves falling back into old habits or neglecting self-care practices if we don't actively seek new ways to nourish our well-being.

Familiarity can also have a significant positive impact on an athlete's performance. For example, home teams can take advantage of their familiar local environment. It can lead to lower levels of stress for the home team. And familiarity with teammates can help team members work on independent tasks as well as efficiently communicate and coordinate.

So, how do we break free from the familiarity trap? 

To effectively deal with familiarity, sportspeople, athletes, and wellness enthusiasts can adopt several strategies. 

Firstly, Embracing Change and Seeking Out New Challenges can help break the monotony and stimulate growth.

• Shake Up Your Routine: Introduce new exercises, explore different trails, or try a new sport altogether. Stepping outside your comfort zone reignites the spirit of exploration and challenges your body and mind in new ways.
• Seek New Challenges: Set ambitious yet achievable goals, participate in competitions with varying skill levels, or plan an adventure to an unfamiliar destination. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and rediscover the thrill of overcoming new obstacles.
• Change the scenery: Fresh air and sunshine infuse energy into tired workouts, so make sure you find a way to burn some calories outside of the gym. That’s not the only change of scenery you need. The next time you find yourself mindlessly staring at the numbers scrolling across the console of an exercise machine or the black line at the bottom of a swimming pool, or following the same route through your neighborhood while on foot or on your bike, take the time to connect with others doing the same thing. Striking up a conversation or sharing a smile or high-five with a fellow exerciser can add a spark to a workout.
  

Secondly, Maintaining a Mindset of Continuous Learning and Improvement can keep motivation high and prevent complacency by fostering a sense of progress and purpose. When we actively seek to learn and grow, we are more likely to stay engaged and enthusiastic about our goals. This mindset encourages us to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles. It also helps us adapt to change more effectively, as we are constantly expanding our skills and knowledge. The pursuit of continuous improvement promotes a sense of accountability, as we are motivated to consistently strive for better outcomes.

Thirdly, Practicing Mindfulness can reignite your passion and help you find new ways to engage with your chosen activity. Reflect on your goals and motivations. What initially drew you to your sport, fitness routine, or adventurous spirit? Reconnecting with your "why" can reignite your passion.

Fourth, Embracing technology can help motivate you to go a bit farther, a bit faster or work a bit harder. There’s no shortage of gadgets capable of counting your calories, steps, heart rate, distance, speed and laps of the pool or track.  Those stats can be delivered in real time or reviewed after your workout is over. They can also be used to set a goal (number of kilometers, workouts or calories burned in a specific time frame), with reminders and encouragement delivered by way of your device as you work toward meeting your daily or weekly workout targets. And technology can do more than deliver stats. You can stream your favorite pump-up songs and sync them to a predetermined workout tempo, listen to a podcast (such as the SelfSeed Podcast sponsored by Aussi) or audio book in the gym or on the run, throw a workout video up on your TV from an app on your phone, and enjoy music using bone conduction technology while doing laps of the pool. And if that’s not enough technology for you, wait a week and something new will hit the market. Sometimes all it takes is a shiny new gadget to breathe some life into an old workout.

Finally, Seeking Support from Coaches, Teammates, Mentors or Friends can provide fresh perspectives and insights, helping to navigate the pitfalls of familiarity. You can join group fitness classes, participate in team sports, or connect with other like-minded adventurers because the social aspect can inject fun and motivation into your routine and provide a sense of community and support.

One thing to remember, wanderers, familiarity is a natural part of any journey. By embracing change, maintaining a growth mindset, seeking new challenges, revisiting your goals, connecting with a tribe and using technology, you can transform the dreaded plateau into a springboard for continued growth, discovery, and fulfillment in your athletic and adventurous pursuits.

Share your tips and stories on overcoming familiarity in the comments below! Let's inspire each other to keep the spark alive in our journeys.

Onward, to conquer and thrive, with a spirit of exploration!