As some of you who follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ may know, I started taking CrossFit classes earlier this year.
As I’d expected, it was physically challenging. Though to my great surprise, it was as much, if not more mentally challenging. In other words, during most workouts, my mind threatens to give out way before my body does.
This revelation has lead me to learn a couple of very important lessons. The first is that showing up is huge. You can’t do anything till you’re there so just get your butt there. Once you’re there, you’re committed and it’s automatic.
The second lesson is that you’d be surprised at how much your body can do if you can get your mind out of the way. It never fails, we’ll start a workout and all I can think of is “a hundred of these? I’m going to die!” But before you know it, I’m at thirty, then fifty and woah, I’m past the halfway mark. Soon I’m at sixty, then seventy-five… almost there! When I finish the workout I wonder what happened. Did I black out? I’m done? How’d it happen? Had I listened to my mind and given in to the fear of “a hundred!? Are you crazy??” I would never have discovered just how much I could actually do.
Though I still battle with the psychology of it all, it’s slowly starting to sink in that there are broader applications to these lessons. First, whatever it is that I want to accomplish, before anything I need to show up. Second, if I can set aside my fears and reservations and get on with it, who knows how far I can go and what great things I can accomplish!
–30–
Read more from the archive.