Open-world Gaming

One way of viewing fitness and endurance is by relating them to the maps in open-world video games. At the beginning of the game you can only see a small corner of the world and the rest is black and inaccessible. You can't see far or go fast and you have little strength or stamina. Almost everything you meet is stronger and faster than you and able to stop or catch and kill you. If you stay in that corner you remain weak and slow and vulnerable and the game remains dark and difficult and unexciting.

But everything changes when you start moving. Yes your stamina drains quickly but when you wait a little while it regenerates a little faster and you can go a little longer than before. Your map expands and what used to be dark and unreachable becomes visible and achievable. You discover new abilities and meet new people and go on adventures to new places with these new abilities and people. These adventures keep expanding your map and now you can see a lot further and with your new stamina you can go even farther and faster and do things previously impossible. You can even begin searching for new maps and drawing your own routes and choosing your own adventures.

All of that is possible only if you start and keep taking steps. Staying in the corner means staying slow and blind and limited. But by going and keeping going, the map is unlocked, and the world is yours.