My
college softball team used to say this chant before every game. We huddle
together and say some motivational words sprinkled with smiles and winks and
then we would put our hands in and someone would, "Ladies, lets get
to..." and we'd all shout back a resounding, "WORK!" It made
sense, we were about to do something that required a tremendous amount of
focus, tenacity, and teamwork. It always got us going and ready to play.
Now out of school for two years now (I'm SO old, I know!), I had
almost forgotten about the battle cry, until I read a post by the Fitness Nerd
entitled "The Three Real Reasons People Succeed" (read it here: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/10/22/3-reasons-people-succeed/).
Great article! (I actually recommend that you read anything from the Fitness
Nerd and his troops of rebellious nerds. He is so inspiring and will make you
want to change your life!) Anyhow, after reading the article, I remembered how
empowered and excited I felt when we acknowledged the amount of work we were
about to take on and we "put on our hard hats" and got to work!
I think the same concept rings true for anything you want to
accomplish in life, such as my journey to my fittest self. You must start out
accepting, acknowledging, and fervently launching yourself into the work that
must be done. Any path worth following will surely have some obstacles and work will need to be done.
I know myself well enough to shamefully admit that I start
out projects with such gusto, like the hey-i'm-going-to-JUST-DO-IT, nose to
grindstone, get work done! After a short duration, reality sets in and I start
to get back to my normal half-arsed, “I don't need to put all of myself into
this” attitude. And it happened with THIS fitness journey all too quickly! I
once again followed in my normal path of jumping in feet first only to
have my excitement wane as the weeks wore on, and it was only three weeks!
First, my self-talk (you know, those little things you think about yourself) and
the way I talk to others goes way negative, then my attitude begins to change
from positive to nearly-pessimistic. It’s not long after that that my original mission
nearly goes down the toilet!
So it all comes down to
attitude.
Often, and all-too-recently, I forget that my attitude and the
words I say physically affect those around me, my stress, and, in this case, my
workouts. Recently, I have found myself stressed and saying negative
things about activities I love. I didn't worry about it too much until it
reached its pinnacle last Thursday at my kettle bell class. I said something
negative about one of the exercises the fitness instructor had us do. I meant
it in a kidding kind of way but the instructor snapped back at me and caught me
off guard. I didn't understand why he was mad. And then I thought, "Why am
I being so negative, why am I making excuses?" This was my fault, this
ones on me. So after being pissed at him for awhile because he snapped at
me, I let it be a learning lesson that I need to adjust my attitude and my
words. For someone who prides herself on having a positive optimistic attitude,
I sure have to make that adjustment an awful lot! I'm reminded of this
lesson at least twice a year when my attitude starts to get sh..atty.
It was
almost fate that I read this article, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Read a snippet from the article below:
Those that fail give up at the slightest sign of resistance.
They willingly accept that “things got busy” or “I had a bad day” or “I don’t have time,”
and then they complain that they can’t seem to get healthy. They get overly
excited when the scale reads lower than expected, and then they become
inconsolable when the scale moves up a single pound the next week.
Those that succeed? They put on
their “hard hats,” and go to work. No complaints. No excuses. No feeling
sorry for themselves. Just progress. They understand there will be
good days and bad, busy days and slow days, days filled with awesomeness and
days filled with sadness. They don’t allow themselves to ride the roller
coaster of emotion. They just shut up and do work.
...
Hard hats go on, clocks
get punched, and work gets done.
-Steve at NerdFitness.com
Life hands us attitude checks sometimes and it boils down to
whether we accept the lesson or ignore it and continue to be pessimists (as
Life Is Good says- there's no sense being pesimistic, it wouldn't work any way).
How often do you have to re-apply that hard hat and go to work? Is it time for
you to go to WORK?
Attitude check...where's your's today?
I know where mine is, it's time for me to shut up, drop the
excuses, scratch the complaints and GET TO WORK!
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