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Exhausted
Have you ever felt just completely and utterly exhausted? That was my feeling this morning. You see, yesterday I decided that I would start doing a short 20-30 minute bodyweight workout every day. Yesterday it went great! I did it in the afternoon and felt great about myself afterwards. Today was a different story, though. After my workout this morning I laid on the ground for 20 minutes in sheer exhaustion. And when I finally got up to take a shower, I had to lay down again on my bathroom floor for 15 minutes to avoid passing out. But interestingly enough, after going through that crazy exhausted episode, I am actually more determined to continue with my goal to do a small workout every day.
This morning was not pretty for me in any way. It wasn’t until I was able to stumble into the kitchen and eat a handful of M&Ms to get my blood sugar up that I started feeling better. (It was truly a display of fitness, athleticism, and health, except the opposite of all three of those things). But I’m not trying to talk about workout routines or health or fitness right now. What I want to talk about is the process of starting new things or finding new habits.
Almost every new path you take or new habit you start is going to have its rough patches. Whether you are trying to read more, stay more focused at work, change careers, or any number of other things - there are going to be times when you just feel exhausted. It might not be physical exhaustion, but in some capacity you are just going to feel tired or done with what you are doing. It is at this point that it is easiest to give up. When I was laying on my floor this morning with my hand on my heart I was really thinking “I give up, I’m never working out again, it’s not worth it.” But after I was able to recover, take a shower, and go about my day, my mood changed. I no longer resented working out, but rather felt proud of myself for doing it.
In thinking about my shift in mood, I realized that new things are often like hills. When you start, it’s uphill and it’s hard! No one likes walking uphill, it’s the worst. But I think the misconception is that the steepest part of the hill is at the bottom rather than the top. What I realized today, though, is that the steepest part of the hill is not at the bottom, or even in the middle, but the hardest part of the hill to climb is the last few steps to get to the top. Once you are able to get through them you are at the top of the hill with an amazing view and a nice downhill walk on the other side. That’s not to say that there won’t be more hills in the future - but when you give up or turn away in the middle of hardship it’s like turning around on a hike when you were only a few steps from the peak.
So that is my challenge to you this week: don’t give up in the middle of a challenge. I think you’ll be amazed, just like I was today, at how beautiful the view is from the top of the hill when you get there. And how nice it is to see at least a little downhill section on the other side. Today has really made me think about how many beautiful views I might’ve missed because I gave up in the middle of something. So go out there, climb those hills, and see how good it feels when you make it to the top, it gives you a lot of energy to walk down the other side and start climbing the next one. And over time, as you climb more and more hills in an area of your life, every hill will start to look less and less intimidating from the start.
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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