It took me a long time to learn the lesson. Too Long if you ask me.
From grammar school to high school, I was an excellent student. I almost always did my homework. I rarely missed a day. I wasn’t perfect, but I tried my best. I was very close to perfect. I had no doubt I was going to college. In fact, I could pretty much pick the college I wanted to go to provided my family and I could afford it.
Something changed in college, my focus changed. It went from academics to social. It took me almost the entire four years of college to regain my academic focus. I skipped classes. I took homework for granted. I was able to get B’s and C’s in most classes without having to do too much work. Yet, how did I slip up? What lesson did it take me too long to find?
What would happen is I would miss a class. I’d miss a homework date. Then, I’d miss another class, and another. I’d think to myself. Since, I already missed a class and homework, I can’t be perfect. So, I might as well miss more. Then, mid-term would come, and I’m spending the night before cramming my butt off, because I didn’t do the day-to-day work. I’d get a B or a C on the midterm. This success without work quickly became a bad habit. The thinking since I wasn’t perfect, I might as well slip up even more was poor judgement. The if I’m not perfect, I might as well be the exact opposite.
How does this apply to fitness?
Its the same as thinking, well, I just had a bowl of ice cream, I might as well eat the whole pint.
Its the same thinking as I missed my exercise the past few days, I might as well not do it today.
For me, the lesson I learned is that perfection thinking is crap thinking. Just because you slipped up yesterday, and you can not be perfect anymore doesn’t mean squat. I’m not perfect. I’m human, and humans are not meant to be perfect.
The lesson that took me so long to learn was: If you get off the horse, get right back on as soon as you can! I’ve talked about this unperfection lesson in a different way in the past in the blog post: Begining with the end in mind.
Why do I bring this up? Well, This past week, I fell off the horse. The prior week, I was great. I met all my fitness goals. This week, not so much. I did some great hiking on Sat, Sept 19. (I know that is last week, but the hiking was pretty strenuous and I needed Sunday and Monday to recover. Okay, that seems like an execuse and probably is.) So, I skipped all my weight workouts. I did Bike Wednesday a nice strong 17 miles. Yet, I feel like a failure especially considering I have not adjusted my diet to match my lack of activity. I am even posted late this week. I did a late Tue, but where is Thursday’s post like I said.
But, when you fall off the horse, you get right back up as soon as you can. I’m blogging today, Friday. Saturday, I plan to walk around most of the day. Sunday Morning, I plan on running with my wife for an anniversary jog. I’m still figuring out the rest of my exercise schedule, but I’m going to do it! I’m making exercise immutable.
In other news, I get a chance to practice my photographry skills as I’m going to the Chicago Gourmet Food & Wine celebration this weekend. I will plenty opportunity to take all sorts of great shots in Millenium Park. I’m excited about all the tastings and the chance to hear some expert Chefs and Sommeliers speak. If you have any recommendations on what tastings I should hit, let me know.
Remember. You are not perfect! Yet, you can get dust yourself off and get right back up! You can do it just as I can.