The Heart and Soul Intersection
Last week marked the 10 year anniversary of the opening of Roark Gyms. The question I’ve been asked most over the past 10 years is, ‘why did you choose to open a gym?’
Not much in my pre-Roark life indicated that I’d ever open a gym. I followed the very traditional route of high school into varsity into professional life. There was something in me though that I couldn’t ignore. There was a feeling that a space needed to be created that allowed people to express themselves freely and without judgment.
I’m certain that this is the reason people open art, dance and yoga studios. They’re called to serve and help people. I certainly felt (and still feel) that calling. My vision happened to manifest itself in a 500 square meter storage facility. I borrowed R 90 000 ($6000) from the bank, could only cover half the space in matting, bought 6 barbells, some weight plates and had pull up bars installed. For those there at the beginning, you’ll remember we didn’t have hot water because I couldn’t afford a geyser!
Even though the space was simple, it was pure. Every single person who came in there, regardless of their standing in the outside world, was treated the same. It’s my deepest hope that they all felt treated the same way too. The idea was that you just had to come as you were, that you were already ‘enough’ when you walked through those doors. What I wanted to show people though, was that they were also capable of so much more than they thought.
Your body is the most honest thing in the world.
It responds exactly as it is told to. That’s what I love about training. It’s the most tangible expression of someone’s willingness not to quit. I believe wholeheartedly that when you don’t quit (or cheat!) on something as simple as a 15 minute high intensity workout, then you’ll prove to yourself that you won’t quit when things get hard in life outside the gym either.
I’ve spoken and written these words countless times over the years, but they still hold true. More pertinently, they still form the basis of what Roark is today, a decade later. I am so proud of this. So proud that this simple vision has rippled into so many lives. So this is what I wish to tell whomever reads this: if you create something from your purest please, with your purest creative intention, it will endure. It will reach more people in a more personal way than you could ever imagine.
So if you’re reading this and something stirs within you — perhaps your own vision for what you want to create in the world — I’d strongly encourage you to manifest it. The intersection of what your heart desires and your soul craves is ‘that thing’ you’re called to do. Nurture it.
We are all put here to create and we are all creative. Listen to that feeling deep within you because it will lead you down paths of growth you never could have dreamed of.
