Overcoming disappointments, mistakes and fears...

There were so many things I wanted to write about today but for the sake of not boring you and making sure I still have things to write about later I will only touch on my experience with my workout out today and my thoughts on escaping the pitfalls of disappoints, mistakes, and fears.

I was and am still pretty fatigued today, but am highly motivated and extremely focused right now so I jumped into my workout trying not to think about it. I started to tire but told myself to suck it up. About 40 minutes into it though I hit a wall. My head started to hurt, my body started to ache all over and mentally I was done. I tried a sports drink, tried taking a short break but nothing seemed to bridge the gap. I was sorely disappointed with myself but there was nothing I could at that point. I felt like I had let myself down and set myself back. I have ran a few marathons, worked out for a years and have pushed myself pretty hard before so I was totally caught off guard when this happened.

Back tracking, between clients and before my workout this morning, I was reading the next chapter of a fitness book I am strictly following for the 12-week duration of my transformation and the entire chapter was overcoming your fears. It talked about turning your fears into fuel and recognizing the bigger problems and to learn from them. He goes on to say "...rather than try to ignore your fears, learn from them. They teach you about yourself, pointing to your weak points and biggest obstacles, and help you map out the most direct route, to achieving great levels of happiness and success."

I thought about this as I was trying to recover from my spell this morning. I will be honest, my immediate reaction was to overeat. I wanted some sort of comfort, and immediate repair for the internal and external damage I felt. But instead of giving into this, I evaluated the situation, took a moment to rethink what happened, what I wanted to happen and my long term goals and was put back into a better frame of mind. The urge was still there to "fall off the wagon" so to speak but the desire to overcome the long term fears and battles was greater. I am sure there will be moments in the future where my fear, disappoints and/or mistakes will be the winner in the immediate battle, but for today I turned my fear into fuel and make a better decision because of it.

Tip: When you feel the urge to binge, overeat, skip your workout, or overcome with fear, anxiety, disappoints or upsets about reaching your goals (physical or non-physical), stop and take a moment to reflect about your long term goals, overcoming your fears and maximizing the moment so that you wont regret it later. A marathon is completed by a million small steps...make the most out of each one.