Misery to Mastery
"You can't outwit fate by trying to stand on the sidelines and place little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything to play the game, or you don't play at all. And if you don't play, you can't win." - Judith McNaught
This photo is from the first time I ever did a hero WOD named "Murph". It took me 72 minutes to complete: 1 mile run; 100 pull-ups; 200 pushups; 300 air squats; 1 mile run.
One year later, I completed the same workout in 47 minutes...a 25 minute improvement just because I showed up to exercise more days than not.
Have you ever noticed that something you consider to be a weakness, actually serves as a strength in some other context of your life?
Two of my greatest weaknesses, dealing with anxiety and depression, also act as the cornerstones of my greatest strengths. These weaknesses:
- can keep me in a fog and create disorder in my day
- prevent me from going to events I'd looked forward to attending
- generate loads of frustration as my efforts towards success are thwarted
They also act as my strengths:
- force me to be more organized than I even realize
- make me face my fears and come up against my discomfort on a daily basis
- demand my perseverance in the daily slog to achieve my goals
My strengths are born from my weaknesses because I have to show up and experience pain and misery on a daily basis. Perhaps if you don't have that wall to push against, it is actually more difficult to generate traction and take risks to create a better life for yourself. Perhaps you are actually more uncomfortable than you realize, but have conditioned yourself to ignore it. Or, perhaps your weaknesses are waiting on the sideline ready to spur you into action.
Try this . . . write down your top 2-3 weaknesses. Now, write down how those weaknesses have helped you. See if within the rubble you can find a rock to shatter your comfortable existence. By doing so, you will let in light, thoughts, sounds, textures, flavors, and smells, that you'd been ignoring.
It is true that I am a fitness trainer that can help people transform their health. But to me . . . that is not the end game. Instead, by facing that discomfort on a daily and weekly basis, we are becoming stronger individuals who are better prepared to face the expected and unexpected demands of daily life.
Join me.
-Coach Rebecca