Have you ever taken a long trip in the car to a vacation destination? Think about it. When it’s time to leave you are so excited to be going. When you are about half way you start to think “We should have flown”, “Why are we still driving?”, “When are we going to be there?” Sound familiar?
I started a trip on Monday here at Fitness Ridge. On Monday I was so excited. On Tuesday I was sore but still excited to be here. Today I was exhausted. I didn’t want to get up for the 6 am hike, I really wanted to go get a big huge breakfast. I didn’t want to work out as hard as I knew I could.
The good news is that I did get up, I didn’t go out to eat, and I did work out as hard as I could. The question is why do we start out so fast on a journey only to lose momentum. I believe it’s because as good as our intentions may be, often we will look back at past experiences and draw upon those as opposed to focusing on the experience that we are currently having.
I’ll be the first to admit that I have always been a fast starter only to lose a little focus on the way to my destination. Instead of pushing through, sometimes I will decide to start over. This cycle repeats itself and it seems that I am not making any progress and eventually come up with a reason to focus on something else.
If you haven’t noticed, my hikes this week are my reflection times. Today I realized that it’s not enough to start a journey, we need to finish it. Sure it would have been easy to take some time off, come up with an excuse why I needed a break, but the reality is that I didn’t and don’t need a break.
Today was Wednesday, fittingly refered to as hump day. We have to be willing to get over that hump in order to move forward toward our destination. Even though we may not feel like it, we have to press on. If we continue to give up and start over every time we face difficulties we will never get anywhere, much less the place we really want to be.
To sum it up, today was a day to look at today, not tomorrow or a month from now but right here in the present. I had to decide not to give up and start over another day. I had to push through today in order to get tomorrow and once again transform my life in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.
We will never know what we are capable of if we give up before we give ourselves a chance. Press on!
See you tomorrow!
#1 by Connie - June 16th, 2010 at 21:41
Matt, I know how it is to go on a long trip and wonder when you will get there. I just joined our local fitness center in May and then in June I went on vacation to the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It was only for one week, but when I got back, I had the worse time going back to the fitness center and working out. Especially since all I saw was beautiful mountains, sunny skies, and clear air for a week. When I returned to Iowa last weekend, it was dark, cloudy, and pouring down rain! I was actually MAD and in a bad mood, which isn’t like me at all, for a few days. I thought, ‘How can I expect myself to feel the way I felt in the mountains when I live in a state that has dark grey skies and is not conducive to outside playing and exercising?’ How does someone handle it when they don’t get the endorphins or happy butterfly feelings from the weather they are living in? I did make myself go back to the gym, in the rain, and do my cardio on the bike. I wanted to quit but I kept thinking of the Biggest Loser contestants that are not allowed to quit, so I did my full 30 minutes and felt a great accomplishment afterward. I had returned home and got in the goove again. Mind over matter. Take care…. ttyl