08/16/2026
Love this post. Please don’t get offended when Ellen Yates does the same. I do it because I care and we care about you and your health at N2Shape. We are a family.
Yesterday I emailed my yoga studio to cancel my membership. The owner’s reply was five words long… and it worked.
I’d been away for a month. Deep in launch mode, building systems, and yoga was the thing that gave. So I did what felt responsible and hit send on a cancellation email.
Christina, who’s owned Radi8 since the day it opened eight years ago, who practiced beside me before she ever owned a studio, wrote back: “No. We made a deal. I miss you.”
I went tonight. And I loved every minute, the way I always do once I’m on the mat. Here’s what I keep thinking about: she didn’t sell me. She saw me. And the science says that’s not a small thing.
Research shows only 17 percent of new gym members actually show up twice a week their first year. Yet when social support enters the picture, time spent moving jumps by a median of 44 percent. Not a new program. Not more willpower. A person who notices when you’re gone.
You don’t need more discipline. You need more witnesses.
A few things I’m taking with me:
* Attach your habit to a human, not an app. Tell one person, your instructor, your walking friend, your trainer, that you’ll be there. Being missed is the strongest adherence tool science has measured.
* Don’t cancel, shrink. When life gets full, go once a week instead of four times. Zero is the only number that breaks a practice.
* Let people care about you. I make it hard for my clients to quit on themselves. This week, someone did that for me. Both sides of that exchange are a gift.
If there’s a practice you’ve been quietly letting go of, don’t email the cancellation. Email the person. Tell them you’ve been away. Watch what happens.
All of us are still becoming.
With love, Kim
