Four Things

A couple of careers ago, I had occasion to make one of those color-your-own plates with a group of folks.  Drawing is not my forte (although I do make excellent stick figures), so I went with words on mine.  I chose a set of instructions for life from something I was reading at the time that quoted Angeles Arrien:  Show up; pay attention; tell the truth; remain unattached to the outcome.

These principles apply to fitness as well.  (Well, yeah, fitness is a part of life…)  Here’s how:

Show up.  That workout isn’t going to do itself.  Since getting started is often the hardest part, this direction comes first.

Pay attention.  This instruction applies in several ways.  One is about mindfulness in general.  We want to be aware of what we are doing, tuned in and present.  Another has to do with form.  Taking the time to do whatever we are doing with proper form makes everything more efficient and helps prevent injury.

Tell the truth.  Again, this can work a lot of ways in fitness.  For one, it is okay to say when we really hate an exercise, whether we have to suck it up and do it anyway or we can find an alternative that gets us similar results.  This is also the place where we get to confront obstacles and find alternatives.  Maybe the truth is that we always manage to find an excuse to go home after work instead of working out, but that we can do better if we hit the gym early in the morning.  Maybe we eat too much ice cream not because we lack self-control but because we don’t want to deal with the fact that we’re stuck in a job or relationship that is bad for us.

Remain unattached to the outcome.  This one is tricky, because a lot of fitness is about outcomes.  I think, in this context, this is about process goals.  We trust that if we do the work, things will change.  That means we don’t freak out when the scale doesn’t move as fast as we’d like or when yoga turns out to be a lot harder than we expected.  We use it to manage our emotions so we can keep doing the work.

We can use whatever we have to get where we’re going.