Mental Exercise

When I started crossfit the only way that I could accomplish a pull-up was with the assistance of a 6 inch wide, quarter inch thick latex band that hung over the pull-up bar down to my foot; its springy assistance relieved me of having to worry about most of my body weight. Only 7 months later I kipped a total of 45 pull-ups without any assistance while completing the workout called "Fran" in 12 min! I went home and compared my two scores  - thrilled at my accomplishment! Meanwhile, I kept in the back of my mind that there was a girl completing the very same workout in less than 4 min. There is no better way to see on how far you've come and how far you have left to go than through crossfit.

I wish that I could see the rest of my life as clearly! The problem is that I find myself thinking only about how far my GPA is from perfect, how behind I am because I haven't found a summer job, how many pages away (in orders of magnitude) I am from being completely caught up on my reading.

Perspective helps me move forward. Crossfitters write down their lifts and their scores. I know that if my personal record (PR) from last month was a 105 lb clean, this month I'm shooting for something higher. At the same time, lifting heavy weight humbles you because every attempt to get over your PR is a risk and a challenge. Heavy weight makes you appreciate your strength and the difficulty of the task. I think that with that appreciation comes improvement.

I am, consequently, challenging myself to practice perspective in all areas of my life. This means appreciating how far I've come and being grateful for everything that I have. This will be my mental exercise.