You are not sorry

Often clients will apologize to me when an exercise is hard for them.  News flash:  the exercises are supposed to be hard.  My job is to provide challenge in appropriate doses.  This, in itself, is hard for most of us because we all secretly, or not so secretly, want to be good at everything we do.

I work on balance with all my clients.  Not one of us is getting younger and the difference between independent old age and nursing home care pretty much comes down to balance—falls are everyone’s kryptonite.  So yes, I am going to ask everyone to try to stand on one foot, or do single leg squats, or stand on the BOSU, or play one-legged catch with me.  Yes, sometimes we have to put that other foot down, or use a body bar, or step off the BOSU in a less-than-controlled manner.  This is called practice.  When the task gets too easy, it’s my job to make it harder.

Failure is part of the process.  It doesn’t mean that we are “bad” at balance (or whatever else we’re working on); it means we haven’t mastered it yet.  That’s what we show up to do—to practice until we get to mastery and then find a new skill to master.

We never need to apologize for not being able to do something yet—only for not trying to grow.

We can do this.