Attitudes on Attitude

I am not one of those people who is going to say that attitude is everything.  That workout that we complained the whole way through?  It still worked.  And maybe all that whining and groaning made the difference between doing it and not doing it.

 

That said, we will be happier if we bring some kinds of attitude to our thinking about our workouts.  If, before and after the work, we devalue what we do or did, we discourage ourselves from doing it at all.  If we evaluate our selves rather than our work, we are not likely to feel all that good, because not one of us is perfect—there is always someone out there stronger or younger or thinner or more whatever than we are.

 

The attitude I like best (even if I don’t always achieve it) is one of loving curiosity.  I look at my week’s worth of workouts and I try to see why it went well or why it didn’t without passing judgment on myself.  Maybe I missed a workout.  Maybe that was because I stayed up too late the night before watching tv.  I might decide that was not worth it, but if I was up too late laughing and playing games with my family, I might decide that my health needs that, too.  And I might also figure out that just because I usually work out in the morning, it doesn’t mean that I have to do it then if I need a little more sleep first.

 

Or let’s say I tried something new, some different yoga routine.  At the end of the week, I can see what my body feels like and decide if I like what this particular batch of exercises does.  If I do, great!  I know what I want to do in the new week.  If not, I can think about what I want to try instead.  It all goes better if I don’t say, “You know, I really suck at this and I’m never going to get better at it and I don’t know why I even try.  And by the way, I’m ugly and stupid and useless and worthless and who picked out those clothes?  I did?  UGH!”  (Other people’s inner monologues might be nicer and more creative than mine, but I do know how to make myself feel small…)

 

The point here is:  we can bitch all we want while we work, but we need to save some kindness for the evaluation and planning bits.

 

Go play.