“These last minutes that you DON’T want to do are the most important minutes of your workout.”
– Jen Mulford
I’ll agree with Jen here and then take it up a notch. I think that the minutes you spend doing stuff you don’t want to do are some of the most important minutes of your life. And I don’t think this because I have decided that there is some inherent value in suffering. Doing your taxes, getting the oil changed, listening to some boring person talk. Enduring these things will not magically transform your life into a pile of awesome. But it may transform you.
I am bombarded on a daily basis by people telling me that they only do what they ‘love’. Or that we should all follow our’ bliss’. Or that if something makes you unhappy, it must be excised from your life. (And understand, I am hearing this from social media. I have very few real life friends and they don’t talk this nonsense.) Can we all just take a minute to see how goofy this advice is? Now honestly if you are being abused, then by all means, remove yourself from that situation. I’m not suggesting at all that we try to live in pain and struggle. But seriously. Getting your tags renewed is no fun. But it’s not a punishment. It’s real life.
You know who lives their lives doing only the stuff they love? 3 year olds.
Sometime last year, I was doing a bit of bragging on myself. I was telling a friend “I have consistently worked out twice a week for three months.” Now this may sound like no big deal to you. But, for me…ya’ll you just cannot even begin to understand what an accomplishment that was. I am the queen of giving up. The countess of quit. My friend was proud of me and applauded my efforts. She asked eagerly. “And do you just love it?!?!?” And I responded, “Nope.”
I do not love doing lunges, or planks, or squats, or crunches. I do not love it now. I did not love it then. I have no plans to love them in the future. I have never, in the history of ever, jumped out of bed in the morning excited to do some bicep curls and burpees. Here’s the cold hard truth. Lunges don’t care if you love them. They work whether you are smiling or cursing.
I think maybe all the inspirational fitness programs on TV have seduced us into believing that there is some magical place in time where we will just love to run marathons, or jump on top of really high boxes for no good reason. Quit checking the calendar my friend. That day ain’t coming.
Maybe you have found an exercise that you just love. If so, count yourself lucky and enjoy the gift. I actually have found some things I really enjoy doing in the gym. But I still go do the stuff I hate. And I don’t do it to punish myself. I do it because it is important and necessary.
I have stopped thinking there is something wrong with me because I don’t love to exercise.
I love this body that God has given me. I love healing it from the damage I inflicted upon it. I love changing it a tiny bit every day.
And, for me, this is more than enough.
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