Freedom Friday: Fear and Failure
Let me just start by saying that the whole point of fitness is not just your growth in the gym (or the gymnasium, or the basement floor that turns into your war zone when you press play. Pick your poison! ;).
It simply cannot be.
Whenever you fight for that one more rep, that extra inch, the burn in your entire being, you're hardening yourself.
Your brain, your willpower, is also getting a workout all of its own. You become a little more driven. A bit better at focusing. And hey, we all know your health also improves which also bleeds out over the rest of your life.
There will be challenges that will hold you back
Both in life and in your training program.
You will be afraid. And Mr. Paul help me (he's my cat, by the way. My big, fat tabby cat), you will inevitably fail.
[Writing of this blog had to take a break because said cat has just jumped on my lap and wants pets...]
The point of Freedom Friday is to work out something in your mind that's weighting you down, and let it go. Now I can probably pick something from my own experience every week for a while and I might never run out... But since I'm trying here to help you guys too, feel free to send in your struggles during the week and I will pick them up on Friday and let you know why it's okay. (I'm basically offering to find your silver lining for you! Hehe)
January 3rd: self-sabotage?
It's happened to most of us. We got so, so close to reaching this or that goal, and then whoops? We slipped and missed the target. And deep down we know we had it in us to reach out just a little bit more and make it. So why didn't we?
I've done it several times and I still don't really know why I do it. Is it fear of success? A need for attention? A call for help?
I was .5lbs off of the goal weight I had set for myself 3 years ago. 3 years! And what did I do? I stepped back using the holidays as an excuse (a week before they even started. The holiday refeed was actually part of the plan, but that's another story altogether) and went on to regain the weight I had worked so damn hard to lose.
Was it worth it? That's the question that pops up when we do things that we know weren't according to plan. Or went completely against it, in fact. Well the answer is most likely always going to be no. So do yourself a favor and FORGET ABOUT IT!
Do not try to fix the "damage". It's a backasswards way of turning the knife in the wound. You slipped. You missed. If you can't figure out why? Let it go. Chances are it will popup again in the near future (because the self-sabotaging behavior tends to be a recurrent thing) and this time, believe it or not, you will be more prepared to face it and you'll choose differently.
But do not obsess over it. It is not worth it. Your time is better spent focusing on building on successes and using setbacks as stepping stones.
The take home message is: if you screw yourself over once, twice, a dozen times, chances are you're bouncing back without even knowing it. Maybe even coming at it stronger because you're doing the most important thing: You're not letting it get you down.
It's a bit flippy, but it is what it is. The best way to stop a fight with yourself (be it binging, not doing that last rep you just knew was left in your tank, trying to be goofy and spraining your ankle doing so *coughs*) is to laugh in the face of the attempts and just keep on keeping on. Just like your mom used to say about bullies: if you don't let what they say/do get to you, eventually they'll lose interest. We tend to have a short attention span that requires a lot to keep focused. Use it to your advantage!
And I'm going to wrap this up now because I need to move that delicious-looking sandwich picture away from my sight xD (Having pork burgers without buns for dinner! But that's a few hours from now *munches on veggies and turkey slices* :))