Wednesday, September 27, 2006

ah ha


Wednesday is the tortuous but satisfying "total conditioning" class at my gym led by my favorite instructor. It's one of those things that you have to psych yourself up to go to because you know what you're in for. One time after I took the class I literally couldn't get off the couch to greet my husband when he came home the next day. That's what I'm talking about.

But the instructor's my favorite because, in addition to being a wall of muscle, she is inspiring. There's a great pep talk going the entire 60 minutes we're all in front of her. So much more than 'you can do it!' Her mantra goes deeper than that, and it's thought provoking. Takes your mind off the crunch.

Anyway, she said something today that made me think about all my unfinished house projects and the frustration I sometimes feel with not having anything near completion. "Avoid the quit", she said as we struggled through push-ups. "If you can't do any more, hold yourself up - you'll still be working."

Hearing that suddenly clicked for me, much like it does I guess for all those people who write about it in Oprah's magazine. Even if I'm not literally working at it every second, if I keep myself in the ready position, I'm still working. I can still talk about my projects in the present tense. So, unfinished paint job on the house; unfinished paint job in the back room; furniture that needs to be painted; landscaping that needs to be planted; all those other plans that I have but haven't written of here yet...no more sweating on the progress I'm making with any of you! I'm pushing through, there's no quitting, and all will be done some day (with, I'm sure, many more projects added to the workload by then.)

1 comment:

bethy said...

makes sense to me. there is no "finished" anyway, i have found. because then you change your mind about something. :)