A championship pole vaulter friend of mine posted something on Facebook the other day that caught my attention.
He was talking about winning championships, setting records, collecting medals, all of which are nice but how useful are those things in the long run? I guess if you are famous and get lots of product endorsements, commercials, and such that put money in the bank, that would be a good thing. Other than that, some nice memories and good stuff to show your kids and grandkids, right?
But what else?
What is really useful, he said, are the skills you acquired along the way as you trained, sweated and sacrificed along the road toward achieving those goals, setting those records, winning those championships.
Things like determination, stick-to-it-iveness, problem-solving skills, managing failure and success, testing your limits (physical and mental), managing emotions, etc., and the positive effect that learning those types of things has on the rest of your life.
That made me think about exercising. Making a commitment to improve one’s physical condition — and sticking to it.
Setting and achieving a physical fitness goal gives a great sense of accomplishment. Makes you feel good. Proud of yourself. Builds confidence that can spill over into other areas of your life.
It shows you that you have what it takes to do whatever you set your mind to do.
Who knows where it all might lead?
Let’s face it, moving from a sedentary to an active lifestyle can be a huge challenge, both mentally and physically. Getting in shape and becoming healthier is not just something you can decide to do one day and boom!
There ya go. Congratulations, you did it!
Making a decision is a great start, but it’s just the beginning.
We’ll talk more tomorrow about how to move from making that decision to turning that decision into reality.
Have a great day and let me hear from you in the comments below!!!
