A very broad concept, if we start talking it will be a never ending topic. I will do my best to make it short.
I would like to call Fitness an individual asset. It totally depends upon an individual how to take it forward in life. Lot of us generalise fitness with one mind set. If somebody has muscles and a six-pack we automatically think that he/she should be fit. I disagree with that.
Like I mentioned before, fitness is an individual achievement and it differs from person to person. The term ‘Fitness’ for me means the ability to perform a task with less difficulty and less stress on our body and mind. It can be anything, for instance just lifting 20 kilos from the ground to running a marathon.
Fitness for a runner is different from fitness for a weight-lifter. When in great form, they can be considered to have a high level of fitness, but only to perform the task that they are trained to perform. However, their physical appearance will be noticeably different from each other - I think we all agree on that.
But why do we not consider the above example when it comes to ourselves? For example, if I can run 10km in say one hour, I will call myself fit, because that is where I want to take my fitness asset to, and I will be doing all the necessary things that are required to achieve that. If someone else wants to have a good physique, he/she does not have to do what I am doing, that individual can do alternative things necessary to achieve that goal.
But the very important thing to remember is that in both the cases we will have to put our body under some kind of stress to achieve our desired level of fitness and also might have to adopt different eating habits that we currently are not used to.
A very important thing I would like to add – try to make this a process where it is enjoyable and you can maintain most of the time, and once you reach your target, try to improve or even set a new goal.