As mentioned last time, some exciting fitness stuff came up and taught me many lessons. Here are a few:
1) Slow down.
If you want to build something sturdy, lasting, or worthwhile, do it slowly. That way, what’s doing the building is you. Not momentum. Not bad form. Just your work, your discipline, your will power to be comfortable with discomfort and maintain awareness. It’s ground-floor, 101, easily overlooked but totally essential knowledge.
And it applies to other areas in life. Until recently, I was a "serial actor" or "compulsive actor." For 10 straight years, there was never a time I was not in a show. I began questioning whether that was what I wanted to do. After about 9 months, my momentum slowed and I decided to get out of theatre for a while. It would have been easy to keep going, but not satisfying.
Why was it so easy to keep going? Because I had 10 years of momentum on my side. It was what I knew, what people told me I was good at. Why not just keep going? I was having a good enough time, but you know what? It didn't feel right for me. It's right for lots of people. It just wasn't for me.
And that took a little while to get comfortable with, but once that momentum ended, I was free to start working from 0, which has been really healthy.
So I urge you: find where you have momentum, and determine if you want it there. Kill that momentum. Work from 0, so you know what you're doing is what you really want to do and not just what you're doing because it's easy.
More lessons next time...
1) Slow down.
If you want to build something sturdy, lasting, or worthwhile, do it slowly. That way, what’s doing the building is you. Not momentum. Not bad form. Just your work, your discipline, your will power to be comfortable with discomfort and maintain awareness. It’s ground-floor, 101, easily overlooked but totally essential knowledge.
And it applies to other areas in life. Until recently, I was a "serial actor" or "compulsive actor." For 10 straight years, there was never a time I was not in a show. I began questioning whether that was what I wanted to do. After about 9 months, my momentum slowed and I decided to get out of theatre for a while. It would have been easy to keep going, but not satisfying.
Why was it so easy to keep going? Because I had 10 years of momentum on my side. It was what I knew, what people told me I was good at. Why not just keep going? I was having a good enough time, but you know what? It didn't feel right for me. It's right for lots of people. It just wasn't for me.
And that took a little while to get comfortable with, but once that momentum ended, I was free to start working from 0, which has been really healthy.
So I urge you: find where you have momentum, and determine if you want it there. Kill that momentum. Work from 0, so you know what you're doing is what you really want to do and not just what you're doing because it's easy.
More lessons next time...
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