From The Founder: Getting Started On Your Learning Journey

focus on fitness

Getting Started by Learning From the Journey

Welcome to the first installment of From the Founder with me, Josh Anderson, the founder of DIY Active. It’s only taken 7 years for me to write this first editorial. What took so long, huh?

It’s a long story, but I think it all comes back to the dedication required to achieve your dreams; the fact that to truly reach for your goals, you have to give everything you got and be 100% genuine. I’ll explain…

It all started last weekend. I was working on DIY Active (like I do every single day of my life it seems), just going through some emails, doing outreach, and watching the Olympics. Now, DIY Active was started (originally Always Active Athletics—what a mouthful) to help people get results wherever they wanted. It was meant for those who were intimidated by the gym or who couldn’t go.

DIY Active has morphed into so much more. Now, it’s a full lifestyle site with hundreds of authors, thousands of followers, millions of readers to date, and the motto “Home fitness for everyone.”

Its roots were in helping people reach their true potential, fulfill their life goals, and find true happiness. We’ve been striving for that for over 7 years, but I think we still need work on that last piece—help people find true happiness. We’ve made great strides in our at-home fitness department, but lack the genuine connection with people who drove me to initially start the company. I want to give everyone motivation and a guiding light to reach their goals. Sounds pretty idealistic, but this is what my goal, my happiness, is for the site.

Great, right?

So back to me watching the Olympics this weekend. An athlete had just performed one of the best ski runs of her life. The moments leading up to that were tense as she waited and watched the scoreboard. When it appeared, it dawned on her that she had literally changed her life and medaled—the smile on her face was incredible. The kind of smile that is infectious and makes you so happy for that person, even though you have no idea who they are. There it was: true happiness. That sheer happiness that everyone should experience.

I realized that’s what I wanted to help people find. That true happiness is striving, reaching for goals, and achieving them. It’s what I started this site for, but it’s what I lost throughout the years of growing the site to have the reach I needed to impact as many people as possible. Watching the 2018 winter Olympics refocused me onto this one key and missing ingredient.

But to go at this 100%, I would finally need to let my guard down. I’ve never wanted to be the face of DIY Active; that isn’t my style. I was fine letting all the authors and the brand itself take the light while I was the one behind it. This will need to change if I’m to connect genuinely with everyone and help them reach true happiness. So, I’m dedicated to taking a different approach.

If I’m going to help people as much as possible and find success in life, I have to be genuine. To be 100% genuine, I have to put myself out there. Here’s how we are going to do it:

  • Weekly “From the Founder” piece. Feel free to comment and ask me questions
  • All DIY Nation newsletter emails will come from me
  • We’ve always had stringent article guidelines, but we are tightening those up even more
  • We are going to start researching and personally investing in tools that will help people reach their goals and find their true happiness. Suggestions? Let me know
  • We stand behind our current programs and will work to improve them, even more, to be as useful and affordable as possible
  • You can always send me an email about your goals and I will try to help you find the right resources, even if it’s not DIY Active. I’m not an expert in everything but I will help you find them

I’m going to strive to help everyone find the programs that will help them reach their goals, even if that means sending them to somewhere other than DIY Active. From nutrition to exercise to mediation to anything lifestyle, we are going to help you research the answers to your questions and reach your goals! Think of us as your goals’ concierge service. We’ve got your back!

The moral of the story is: no matter where you are at in your journey, no matter how down and out you may seem, you’re on this journey for a reason. Even though it isn’t apparent now, your journey is helping you grow and prepare you for the next chapter—and we are here to help, whatever that might be. Enjoy the journey!

You’ll go off-track, we all do. I mean, it only took me 7 years to realize I had deviated from my dream! But you will come through it if you use your support system and keep going!

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Founder at DIY Active
Josh is the founder of DIY Active - your at home fitness source! He enjoys blending the latest science and expert advice with health practices to help you exercise smarter at home!
Josh Anderson
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From The Founder: Getting Started On Your Learning Journey