No Excuses For Not Working Hard

This week I've been able to observe and reflect more, not just on myself, but even other clients. I wanted to touch on some things that I've noticed and what I think tend to be obstacles for people in their health and fitness journey.

One of the most common obstacle is our own reactions to something that doesn't go how we expected or wanted, such as a specific weight-loss or maybe even a timed workout that took longer than you would have liked. It's just natural for us to feel like we've failed and want to slack off or even give up. Something else I observed this week while waiting for my session to start, is another client became frustrated with themselves because someone else was doing the exercise better and faster. Don't get me wrong, being in the group workouts I want to make sure I'm doing my best; but not as a competition against them, but more against myself. I think what happens in these situations, is we forget we each have our own strengths and weaknesses and we shouldn't compare ourselves or our results to someone else. One of my weaknesses is pull-ups, and yes I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out why I struggled so much with what I felt should be a simple exercise, yet I could deadlift 265 pounds. And it took Michael reminding me that I'm using different muscles, and I've never really focused on the pull-ups. Well, I had started to work those into some of my cardio workouts and I've actually improved and this week was able to use a resistance band that provides less assistance. But, what I observed was once someone became frustrated because they weren't keeping up with another client, they started to slack as if they were thinking there was no point in pushing themselves if they weren't going to be as good as the other person.

Because baseball is my favorite sport, I remembered this quote and decided to use it for this blog post. The truth is, there will always be someone who is better than you at some things, but that's no excuse not to push yourself to do your best. As long as you are working as hard as you can, the only person you need to worry about keeping up with is yourself.