‘It never gets easier, you only get stronger’, words I have been living by lately. A great life lesson that Crossfit (and exercising in general) has taught me. Just when you think you’ve got a move/exercise and it starts to get easier you add weight or increase intensity! This also relates to my journey in remodeling my life. I’m trying my best every day to learn, progress and embrace all my experiences, not so that life gets easier but so that I get stronger. So when life adds weight or increases intensity I will be better able to handle it. I want to continue to feel a sense of progress, accomplishment and pride in my life and with who I am. This is something that I am not sure I would have learned had I not gone (and still am going) through some of my recent challenges or if I hadn’t joined crossfit. Crossfit has taught me a bit of this lesson over the past year, but lately it has been drilling it in.
Over the past few weeks, I have been feeling like my workouts are getting harder and I am getting worse rather than better. I feel my endurance is non existant these days and everything feels super heavy. My body seems to not know how to work or seems to have forgottten everything it has learned. I am not finishing WOD’s like I used to. How frustrating is this? Extremely! If this were “the old me” I might even take this as my opportunity to bow out or take a break. I would have thought that I wasn’t good enough or cut out for this sport anymore. But not the new me! The new me is embracing this and taking it as a life lesson to keep trying, work harder and continue to get better (no matter how slow the process is).
I read a little quote the other day, “Allow yourself to be a beginner. No one starts off excellent”. This has really resonated with me the past few weeks. I am learning (albeit slowly) to be happy with being a beginner in Crossfit and in life, while being humble and enjoying the process, rather than missing the journey in my strive for excellence. I know that I will never be perfect at Crossfit because like I said there is always weight to add, increased intensity or adding of a new movement (did anyone see the peg wall at the Crossfit Games). This is the same for life, I will always make mistakes but learn from them, I will get beaten down but get back up and I will sometimes take the wrong path or want to change paths and have to start on a new one as a beginner. We start at the beginning of each new day as a beginner so embrace it!
A friend of mine commented and said something great to me, “If you are not learning (always a beginner) you never progress and you never get better. Always treat those, as you get better, with the same patience and respect your teachers gave you. Being humble is the secret to it all.” Hmmmm. Right‽ I am learning to love the fact that I will always be learning and a beginner. I want to continue to embrace this and respect those that teach me (and help me when I need it) so that along the way I can lead by example and empower others to enjoy their learning and process.
It’s hard to imagine that crossfit coming into my life could hold such powerful life lessons. But the truth is, the mental strength that it gives me, almost out weighs the physical. I wish more people could see the powers that this can have on your life and give it a try. The strength it gives you to be strong in everyday life (and of course the nice muscles and healthy lifestyle) has been one of the best journeys in my life.
If you are afraid to try something new, don’t be. We are all beginners and always have to start somewhere. You never know what lessons new things will teach you and if you don’t try, you will never know.
So there may be factors beyond my control (such as the intense summer heat or a change in my strength training) that are contributing to this feeling. But a part of me still feels as though I am taking a tiny step back as it pertains to my work outs. However, I feel as though I am taking leaps and bounds forward in remodeling my life and in health and happiness. I continue to learn a lot about myself and look back on each day with pride and contentment that I have learned, lived and succeeded. Each day is a new day, each workout is a new one and each one teaches me something.
ESSENTIALLY Healthy and Fit 