Looking back at the last 60 days, I think the biggest thing I learned is the power of commitment. I had a lot of goals during these 60 days (aside from just yoga), some I accomplished and others I didn't. When I look at which ones were successful, they were the ones that I fully committed myself to with no exceptions. The ones I didn't achieve were goals that I thought "oh wouldn't it be nice but it probably won't happen."
Getting through 60 days of yoga definitely wasn't easy - there were days when I would have preferred to sleep in an extra hour, or stay on the couch and watch more TV, but it was never an option because nothing was going to stand in my way of making it through all 60 days of yoga.
A big part of being successful was planning ahead. I always tried to look a day or two in advance to decide which classes I was going to attend. I put them in my calendar like I would with any other appointment, and I scheduled the rest of my day around when I was going to yoga. Life is always going to get in the way somehow - there were definitely times when conflicts would come up and I would have to find ways to work around them. I found that there was always a way to get to class - even when I went out of town for three days, I looked online and found a studio to attend while I was gone.
Not having a set plan was a big part of why one of my other goals didn't pan out..."train for a half marathon." Ha ha, even just by saying the goal, I can clearly see that it wasn't specific or measurable so no wonder I didn't stick to it. I just thought to myself "I should start running more so I'll sign up for the half marathon and then I'll be motivated to start training." Well that didn't exactly happen! There was always an excuse - the weather is bad, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I got invited to X and that sounds more fun, etc. I didn't make running a priority - it was just something on the back burner that I treated like something I could get to later, but not now. Well 'now' is here...the half marathon is on Sunday and I'm totally not prepared. Yikes!
Anyway - the point is that I could have just as easily committed to running and scheduled it on my calendar like I did with yoga, but I just didn't do it. Clearly that was the reason why I slacked off and let it fall by the wayside. Which is fine by the way - there is no reason to be disappointed about it, or mad at myself over it. It's just the way it happened, and next time I know what to do differently in order to achieve the outcome I desire. I will inevitably be paying for my lack of training...come Monday I'm anticipating sore muscles on every inch of my body. I'm sure there will be some complaining...but mostly I will just laugh at myself and shrug it off as just a painful lesson learned :)
Now back to what worked for me...here are a few helpful things that kept me on track for all 60 days of yoga: First and probably foremost was proclaiming my goal publicly. I told all my friends and family about the yoga challenge so people were constantly asking how it was going. I didn't want to have to say "oh I gave that up" so the fear of publicly admitting failure was self motivating. Second was having other people doing it with me. The most helpful part of that was having a board posted on the wall at the yoga studio where we put up a star for each class we attended. It sounds silly, but there really was something rewarding about getting to tack on that star every day. Third was keeping a blog. I have never really blogged before, so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. I actually ended up really enjoying it! It was great reinforcement when someone would say to me "oh I loved what you wrote about on your blog yesterday, I totally could relate to it." Since starting this challenge, one of my friends has signed up for a mountain bike race and she's keeping a blog about her training. Knowing that I inspired other people to try something new was really rewarding for me.
So what's next??? I am going to keep attending yoga classes regularly but not every day. With the weather getting nicer, I'll want to be outside more so that will cut down my available time. I will still go on weekday mornings before work, but I will not always go on the weekend. Other than that...assuming I survive the half marathon with my body intact, the next big event I'm going to do is the XTERRA off road triathlon on August 1st (1000 meter lake swim, 15 mile mountain bike, and 6.2 mile trail run). I have been thinking about doing it for the past three years, so this is going to be the year I finally do it. There, I said it! I've announced it publicly so there's no going back...now I'm off to formulate & commit to a set training schedule :)
No comments:
Post a Comment