I love this quote.

I love this concept. 

Because it embraces you for you. It's not asking you to change. It's not asking you to be someone different than who you are, right now, in this moment.

It offers permission, and it also offers some accountability. Accept who you are, and where you are, but take action.

Start. 

Begin.

Change the story you tell yourself about what needs to happen before you can start something new. Too often we wait. I'll start going to the gym on Monday.

After my birthday.

After that trip. 

You can start right now. But you have to change way you think about getting started.

The quote comes from a book of the same title by Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun whose work I've followed for a few years. The book is a guide to compassionate living. 

I'm a procrastinator. I'll do anything to avoid getting started. I don't know why. I just do. 

But I also like this quote because it's gentle. 

The quote "no excuses" absolutely works for some people. Many athletes are motivated by coaches shouting things like no excuses, and no pain, no gain. I still have t-shirts from high school with those quotes. They work. And they are true. You have to be willing to recognize when you're making excuses regarding change. You have to recognize when you're not making exercise and nutrition a priority.

But I don't believe that motivation, accountability, and self-compassion need to be mutually exclusive. 

Regardless of what it is that you're putting off, take a look at what you're waiting for. Sit with the why. Embrace where you are in your life.

Start with where you are.

Start with you who are.

When my high school softball team advanced to the second round of the Pennsylvania State playoffs my junior year, my coach was quoted in the paper as saying “these girls got as close to 100% out of their abilities as any team I’ve ever had. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

I was bummed out that we hadn’t gone further in states, but when I look back on that team as an adult, I understand what he meant.

None of us were superstars, but that team was different than others I played on because we all raised the collective abilities of one another. Some excelled at defense, some at offense, some were fast, some were strong - but we all brought our best assets to the table that year.  

As a strength coach, my goal is still the same; to help each client get as close to 100% out of themselves as possible.

Some clients are former athletes; some have never played a sport in their lives; some are regular gym goers and some haven’t set a foot in an exercise setting since gym class. 

Which is a good reminder that you shouldn't compare. No comparing. Are we clear?  (<----- Read me)

None. 

I know, it's hard. 

But my question is what does your 100% look like? And how can you evaluate?

1. Are you going through the motions?

I’m guilty of this. Often. One of the ways my depression has affected me so dramatically is that I catch myself going through the motions. I show up, I do the work. But I'm completely checked out. In the gym, that means I'm doing the bare minimum. I'm not pushing myself. I'm not challenging myself. I'm not growing and I'm not changing. 

If you don't have a personal trainer or coach, find a workout buddy, or track your workouts. You should be tracking your workouts anyway. But don't just go through the motions. 

2. Do you have a goal?

I’ve written about this in the past, but I think the key to great training is honing in on not just a goal (losing weight), but a performance goal. Increase your deadlift - try a deadlift. Work towards a push up from the floor or your first dead hang chin up.

Squat more, move more, push more. But set an intentional, purposeful goal. And make it about gaining, not about losing. Gaining strength, not losing weight. If you focus on the first, the second one is sure to follow.

3. Are you afraid to fail?

The other day, I put my workout gear on and started to get after it. On the program were some heavy deadlifts and I was working out while some clients were there, also working out. 

After struggling through my warm up sets, I failed to move a weight that I should have easily moved.

I didn’t just fail, I fell flat on my face. At least for that day.

It sucked. Every last part of it. And it got me down. So I went back to it a few days later, but I have to be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d be successful. Those failed lifts were hanging heavy on me. But the only way to know whether or not I'd move the weight was to try it. 

And when I first start lifting, I was often afraid to fail. Afraid that I’d do it wrong, with bad form and hurt myself, or just embarrass myself in front of other people who seemed to know what they were doing. 

Challenge yourself. Push yourself. 

I've heard this quote before, but it took on a different meaning this morning. 

What would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail? Tough Mudder? Spartan Race? Learning the Violin?

I have about an hour commute to the facility each day, and while I sometimes fill the drive singing Cher songs until my voice cracks, I also listen to books on Audible. This week I’m working my way through the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck where she explores the idea of a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. 

From the book:

“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them.

"In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work - brains and talent are just the starting point.”

My favorite story from the book is that of George Danzig, a student from California Berkeley who, according Dweck, went in for a class one day and copied down the math problems he thought were homework. It took him a few days to solve them, and when he finally did, he was surprised to learn that these were math equations that no one had been able to solve. 

Ever. 

I love this story. 

Danzig was working under the assumption that those math problems were homework. He was working under the assumption that all of his classmates were doing the same problems -  so he likely never doubted that he would figure them out.

Granted, Danzig went on to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, and I'm not suggesting that just anyone could have walked into that room and solved those problems. But I wonder how many of his classmates didn't solve them because they assumed they couldn't. 

Are there things that you just assume that you can't do? 

One of my greatest thrills in my job is watching people do something they didn't think they could. 

"I can't deadlift 200lbs."

Not today. Not tomorrow. But with the right preparation and technique? Sure you could. And I've watched it happen over and over again. 

"I'm not a runner. I can't run a 5K or a half-marathon." 

Sure you could. 

What would you do if you never doubted yourself?

Do you have a fixed mindset? About nutrition? About exercise? About art?

I had a conversation in college once with a professor who wanted to play the guitar. She thought it was neat that I could play and asked how I learned. 

"I sat down and taught myself," I said. (With a Roy Clark book I might add, so I'm really good at playing "The Green, Green, Grass of Home). 

"I'd love to learn," she said. "But I have fat fingers and no sense of timing."

"You could if you tried," I offered. 

She laughed at the suggestion. "Some people just aren't born to be musicians." 

I'm not a musician. But I play the guitar. Do you have to be great at something to do it? Some people do. Or are you just afraid you'll fail if you even try?

She had a fixed mindset, so she wasn't going to try.

So I ask again, what would you do if you knew you wouldn't fail?