For the past several years on my birthday, I have managed to do as many push-ups as the age at which I was turning that year. Naturally it’s easier to accomplish a goal like that if I am either in decent shape to begin with, or willing to put in the training beforehand to make it work on July 22nd of whatever year.
Neither of those conditions have been in place thus far this year.
I know why I allowed myself to let life get in the way this year. I have had challenges this year that have allowed me to doubt myself to at least a small degree. My self-doubt has been related to being nearly sixty-two years old and wondering why I am still sitting on dreams that have yet to be fulfilled.
It’s not like I have not been working out at all, but I have been doing the bare minimum in order to gain at least some satisfaction that I can claim I work out three to four times a week. Which is bullshit because if I go to the gym and not give it all I have, well then it’s mostly a waste of time.
It all boils down to what I tell myself; specifically, the thoughts my brain conjures up when I feel negative emotions either address the issue at hand, avoid the issue completely, or schedule (procrastinate) it for another time.
If you ever read Highlights magazine as a kid, you probably remember Goofus and Gallant. The cartoonist always depicted Gallant as being good-natured, morally-driven, and responsible as shit. Conversely, Gallant always played the role of the fuck-up who never got it right and was always seeking the shortcut.
It was a little more than a few years ago that I became well aware that I had the equivalent of Goofus and Gallant living in my own head and influencing my moves every day. I began referring to those voices as Good Scott and Bad Scott.
Good Scott would make sure I took the time to develop good habits and routines that would make myself smarter, stronger, connected, and balanced. Bad Scott, on the other hand, spent a lot of time yapping to me about the beauties of instant gratification and remaining in the comfort zone.
Fortunately for me, I have learned over the years how to counter the influences of my negative side. When my negative self begins telling his little white lies of justification, procrastination, etc., I figure out where I am emotionally and find the correlation between the feelings and the thoughts. Then, I take a few minutes to remind myself of my goals and why those goals are important to me.
That's what I had to do this year when I considered my annual push-up challenge. This goal is important to me for two basic reasons. First, accomplishing it will give me the satisfaction of doing it not only for health and fitness reasons, but also for accomplishing another leg of a mission that I hope to be doing until I’m at least seventy years old and hopefully longer.
Secondly, I want to post videos and share my journey toward this goal with others to demonstrate that nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible if one is determined and committed to doing what it takes to get the job done.
So, if you’re interested, keep an eye here because I plan on sharing my struggles and successes here with all of you. Thanks for reading., and here’s to your success!
