Get Sweaty this Year!
I was nervous as I walked into the gym. I had never done any kind of boxing, and was about to do my first class. The advertisements for this class boasted “you’ll burn 1000 calories,” and I wasn’t sure what kind of torture they’d have planned to make this happen.
I’m not new to exercise or gyms – I had been regularly exercising at my local gym, mostly weights –for the last several years. But, in the spirit of trying something new, I joined a new gym that focused on intense, hour-long workouts that require every bit of energy you can muster.
As I began the class, I enjoyed learning new techniques, and exercising in a new way. But mostly I felt uncoordinated as I tried to get my body to do things it hadn’t done before. I had to unlearn old muscle movements as I tried to re-learn new ones.
By the middle of this hour-long class I was huffing and puffing, and by the end of the class I was sweatier than I’ve been in years. When I got home and tried to take a drink of water, I needed two arms, and could barely lift the glass to my mouth.
I realized how little I had really pushed myself in the last few years. I had gone through the motions of exercising, but wasn’t getting too far out of my comfort zone. The result was that I wasn’t getting better, but was doing more of a maintenance routine.
In order to grow, I was going to have to sweat. And get really, really tired. And sweat a lot more. I would need to go way past what was comfortable today.
That’s the thing about development – in order to really get better, we usually have to sweat. Maybe it’s physically, as in this case. Or it might be mental “sweat,” the kind that we experienced when learning a tough subject in school. Either way, we have to break through the routine of what we can do today without much discomfort.
I’m not a huge fan of all the articles on New Year resolutions, but I found this to be an inspiring idea as I face another Chicago January. I’m nervous about my next boxing class, and how much I’ll have to push myself just to finish one class. I’m having to think more as I completely change up my regular exercise schedule and routine.
But I’m also excited as I think about where I’ll be after one, two, six months…and by the end of the year! I am excited to push myself beyond what I’m capable of today.
I share this for one reason – I hope that other people might share this inspiration to push beyond what’s comfortable today.
If this is you, maybe it’s an issue that has been challenging your team for the last year, and you’re going to figure out a way to overcome it. Perhaps you’re going to make this the month that you start doing what you know it will take to create better relationships with your department. It might mean taking time on your own to tinker around with some new ideas that you think might benefit your function.
Whatever it is that will make you sweat this year – literally or figuratively – I wish you the best of luck. And if you want to get together in a couple months to exchange war stories on our progress, I’ll be here!
