Two things happened recently that reminded me of this:
We can’t always be moving forward.
What reminded me of this was, first, a neighbor of mine was frustrated because she was only able to do 15-minute workouts. Her house was under construction, her kids were going back to school and life was like a box of chocolates – that had melted into a gooey mess.
I was actually surprised she was working out at all, considering the chaos in her life. My advice to her was this: Sometimes you can do hour-long workouts. Sometimes you can’t.
It’s this thing called life, y’all.
Deep. I know.
I was thinking about her as I was trying to get out of my neighborhood, which has become increasingly difficult due to all the damn construction going on. Here in Chicago, they say there are 2 seasons: Winter and Construction.
Right now? We’re deep into construction.
Every day there’s a new road closed or blocked or backed up with cars and it feels like I’m not getting anywhere, kind of how my neighbor felt with her workouts.
But as I was sitting in a small-town traffic jam, I thought about all this construction. They’re resurfacing, rebuilding, reinforcing. In the end, we’ll be glad they did all that, right?
And sometimes, that’s what we need to do for ourselves.
There’s an ebb and flow to life. Sometimes we’re ON – We’re working out, we’re cooking dinner, we’re taking care of the house, the kids, the yard, the everything.
Sometimes we’re OFF – We’re sick, tired, someone else is sick, someone’s in your kitchen knocking down a wall, or you’re just tired.
The thing is, we are constantly under construction. We build ourselves up and then we get a little torn down, just like all the roads around here (which I am convinced are made of tissue paper).
The important thing is to recognize when you’re in an ebb-cycle and let it happen. We all need to hunker down sometimes and some things may need to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list.
Like for my neighbor – Just do the 15 minutes. It’s temporary and things will get back to normal, whatever normal is. And the best part? She can get an awesome workout in 15 minutes. I made her one. You can try it to.
Killer 15-Minute Workout
The next time you’re frustrated with your lack of progress or some other aspect of your life, ask yourself where you are and where you need to be. Can you afford some time to sit back and regroup? Giving yourself that time may be exactly what you need to start moving forward again.