Filling in the holes

Sometimes the hardest decisions are not if your going to finish your workout, but if you will start it at all. I am not immune from those thoughts as well. So many times in my life I sat on the couch or at my desk day after day rewarding my indecision with poor nutrition. The days turn to weeks and so a true lapse has occurred in my fitness. Luckily this has not occurred in many years but still I vividly recall those months telling myself, "Tomorrow I'll start working out/eating better." It taunts me like a drug taunts an addict after many years of recovery.

The sad fact is that millions of people go their entire life thinking everyday about the fitness hole they are in and never doing anything about it except making a promise to start with never setting a date. Its no wonder this hole has created almost a nastiness towards those that have not only dug out of their hole but turned their hole into a mountain that constantly grows as the person reaches higher after meeting each goal.

I think these mountains are not based on altitude so much as capacity and atittude. Whose to say my mountain made with recovery from paralysis and head injuries, finishing marathons and ironman's is any higher than someone who just finished their 5k. I am just as excited for them as I am for myself. Its our own personal self worth that makes the mountain, not what our ego tells us.

So many people live without the faith they can lose weight, get in shape and maybe, just possibly feel a little bit better about themselves. Its this lack of faith that limits them more than any physical ailment. This is why I think deep down all of us mountain builders are so excited for those hole dwellers when they begin to fill in their holes by joining a gym (and using it) or perhaps just running on a consistent basis. Really deep down, just getting themselves outside of their comfort zone to improve themselves is celebration enough.

So today find a reason to celebrate someone who is working towards filling in their hole. Remind someone who told you their New Years resolution was to run a half marathon this year that a 5k is still very much possible. Encourage that person that continues to say they will run with you or swim with you or go to yoga at least once (guilty) that you will stick with them the whole time and then you dedicate that workout not to showing how good you are, but how fun what your doing is.

That the view from atop the mountain is a lot more satisfying than at the bottom of a hole.