I Appreciate You

In fitness, unfortunately, we spend way too much time thinking about what we aren’t good at yet.  We’re always pushing up against the limits of what we can lift, or how fast we can run, or how far away our toes (still) are in that forward bend.  Yes, we grow by recognizing that we’re not there yet and by continuing to work, but it is all right, from time to time, to stop and appreciate.

A long time ago, I used to work in the nonprofit sector.  Nonprofit organizations exist to solve problems.  Most of them need to do too much with too few resources, so everyone is always looking for a better way of working.  It was in that context that I learned about something called appreciative inquiry.

When we approach things with appreciative inquiry, we ask what we’re good at, what we’re doing right.  Then we do more of those things.  This takes the focus off all the other stuff that we are struggling with and allows us to leverage our success.

If we are strong, that means that we focus on our strength.  We do just enough cardio and flexibility work to keep ourselves healthy, and then maximize what we’re good at.  If we are flexible, we do enough weight work that we can control our bendy joints safely and we move enough to keep our hearts healthy, and then we pretzel ourselves to our hearts’ content.

We need to take a good look at what we CAN do and marvel at our own wonderfulness.