Give up on yourself.

Wait what?! What an awful thing to say. Well let me explain…

Today I was reading from my book that has short inspiring and truthful messages that point me to Jesus and scripture. The first phrase was “hopelessness is the doorway to hope. You have to give up on yourself before you will be excited about the hope that is yours in Christ Jesus.” This is so true, and more important than anything I could ever tell you about fitness. Devin and I often draw a lot of similarities between our walk with the Lord and our walk with physical fitness.

That thought sparked another—

What comes to mind when you think of willpower? The posture that comes to my mind is clenching your fists as hard as you can and saying “I can do this” or “I’m NEVER doing that again.” But how many times have you let yourself down? I bet you can’t count the amount of times you’ve said that to only resume said forbidden activity a week later without any intention of correcting your misstep. Do you know why you went right back to the way you were? You weren’t motivated anymore. The clenched fists have gotten tired and are now holding the TV remote or video game controller or the margarita.

So what does giving up on yourself look like? It looks like taking the pressure off yourself to want to do healthy things. The truth is, we will not always want to make the healthy choice, so depending on your feelings to get you to the gym or to cook a healthy meal is foolish. Here is a thought to ponder: Feelings Follow Focus. Is similar to Fake It Til You Make It, but has way more guts. What does focus require? EVERYTHING. If we’re focusing, we tune out the noise, we put our blinders on, we don’t take our eyes off the prize, and we move toward it. Once we identify our goal, we need to identify the habits that will get us there and RELENTLESSLY pursue them. Here’s the thing — even when we don’t feel like it.

Take my home for example. I want my home to always be ready for a guest, but I do not want to do any of the work that is required to maintain that. I NEVER start cleaning or organizing my house with excitement, but just a few minutes in, I can start to see the benefits of clearing those papers that have been sitting on the counter for a week, and I breathe a sigh of relief now that I have removed all of Devin’s accessories from on top of the piano. Now I want to clean. My feelings showed up to the party and now I’m unstoppable. The living room is spotless and ready for ya’ll to arrive! (this is not a real-time story, and you should probably call first. ha!)

So, is fitness your goal? Please don’t wait until you want to go to the gym or cook a healthy meal to move toward health. Choose a few habits, do them consistently, and then when the feelings come to the party, ramp up the intensity— just like CrossFit!

Cheers to giving up on yourself!

-MacLarin ;)