Bumps

While I prefer to focus on the positives, we all have negatives and obstacles to deal with when we show up to work out.  Sometimes those things are heavier than the weights we came to lift.  Here are a few ideas for coping:

• If you are afraid to fail:  My new favorite band has a song that explains that fighters never quit because quitters never win.  Doing something is better than doing nothing.  When we set our initial goals, we need to set them with success in mind.  That might mean the first few goals are incredibly easy to check off, like walking through the gym door, remembering to bring a water bottle, or learning how to work the exercise bike.

• If you are afraid to succeed:  This one is a little trickier because it’s harder to recognize.  We get comfy in our problems.  We are used to them.  When all of a sudden we are handling stuff we didn’t know we could, it can be scary because we realize that we have the power to do all kinds of cool stuff.  Some people won’t like our new, more powerful selves.  We will outgrow old patterns. Things will change, and change is scary.  Own it.  We all deserve to be our best selves and to be surrounded by people who support us in that process.

• If you are tired:  Get started.  Even if we do one rep, we are doing what we need to do to increase our energy in the long term.  We’ll sleep better.  We’ll feel better about ourselves.

• If you don’t have time:  I don’t know a single person who does not waste at least five minutes a day, and I know some seriously dedicated and efficient humans.  Five minutes of working out is better than no minutes.  Heck, it counts if we do body weight squats while the coffee is in the microwave or if we balance on one foot while we brush our teeth.  We can be the boss of our time.

• If you just don’t want to:  Seriously?  How many things do we do in a day that we don’t want to do?  Working out is at least good for us and likely to make things better, unlike, say, commuting or trying to get our kids to eat vegetables.  We can bribe ourselves, use our big brains to figure out how to make the workout least bad, or just suck it up.  We have choices.

We can do this.