The concept of "fitness," physical or otherwise, extends beyond maintaining one's health to avoid illness and injury.
Sure, the baseline goal of fitness is survival, but our bodies actually require very little effort to survive. To expend greater effort towards a higher goal of fitness implies also the underlying goal of being "fit," that is, equipped and ready, for a particular engagement with the world and its inhabitants. To that end, "fitness" is directly subjective to the object of such efforts, whatever or whoever that may be. As such, it is critical before pursuing fitness to ask the question of ourselves: "For what, or for whom, am I striving to be ready?" The clearer our answer, the more directed and fulfilled we will be in this pursuit.
