One Step At A Time

Have you ever had a goal that felt so big, so overwhelming that it felt unattainable? To the point that you were almost certain it was impossible to get from where you currently are to where you’d like to be? Me too…several of them. So now what? Well, we have one of two choices. We can either complete our goal or quit altogether. I’m NOT a quitter, and you better not be. So now that we have that all settled, let’s move on, shall we? 😉

How is it that one gets from the “You are Here” mark to the “You wish You were Here” mark, especially when it feels so overwhelming? ONE STEP AT A TIME, that’s how. Nobody is asking you to jump from here to there, in fact it’s impossible to do so. Progress, however small and insignificant it might seem to you at the time, is progress just the same. I’ll give you an example.

I had an amazing gal start personal training in Sandy with me just two weeks ago. Each client undergoes a fitness assessment upon beginning a program with me so that I can see where their current level of fitness is and design a program that they will be capable of but that will push them slightly at first and then increase in difficulty as time passes. One of the tests they must complete is a Fit Test which is designed to estimate their VO2 Max. It is a five minute test done on the treadmill. They begin with one minute with no incline and then they are raised to an incline of 5 for the remaining four minutes at a pace of 3 mph. I got her all set up and began the test. Four minutes into it, she said that she couldn’t continue and requested to stop and catch her breath. I stopped it immediately, and she began trying to get her respiratory and heart rates back down so that she could finish the test. When she had done so, I restarted the test (which has to be done all five minutes at one time) and she began again. This time she made it through but by the end was rather winded and had her heart rate up quite high.

Just this weekend she texted me. She was on vacation near the Colorado River and had decided to do some hiking.   Her text had a bitter-sweet feel to it as I read it. She stated that she had only been able to complete half of the trail but that she had done 40+ minutes of walking on a constant incline and had only stopped to catch her breath once.   Then noted that she wanted to be able to do the whole trail in the spring. As I stood there reading her text, I began jumping up and down. I smiled and said, “Oh my heck, that’s AWESOME!” My cute kiddos, who have gotten used to my random jumping up and down accompanied by outbursts of encouragement, just looked up at me and then went back to what they were doing. One of my daughters said, “Which one of your clients just did something cool and what was it?” (The trainer AND the Mama in me had to smile at her comment.)

I immediately began texting her back. I reminded her of her first night at the gym when she had a hard time getting through 5 minutes, then pointed out the fact that she had just walked 40+ minutes on a constant incline UP A MOUNTAIN and had only stopped once to catch her breath. I told her that she rocked and that I had no doubt that she would indeed do the entire trail come spring (because I KNOW she will).

That’s what I’m talking about. Progress. Taking one step at a time, doing what you can do and making sure it is always a little bit harder than the day before ensures our progress. As long as we are progressing, even one step at a time, we are getting closer to our end goal. And ya know what? The more steps we take, the closer we get to our goal and the less  overwhelming it feels. I think there are two reasons for that. Excuse me for stating the obvious here but, the more steps we take the closer we get simply because we have covered some of the distance that had us overwhelmed to begin with, but also, we have  situations to look back on and say, “Oh yeah that was a hard thing to get through, but I DID IT. Well, if I can do that, I can do this too!”. We gain self confidence with each step we take and each hard situation we get through, which helps us get through the next hard  situation we encounter.

I can tell you from personal experience and my experience in personal training in Sandy that before you know it, you find yourself standing face to face with your end goal. And that, my friends, is a happy day! But keep in mind that it is just as important to enjoy the journey as it is to enjoy the destination point. Life is a journey; live it, but as much as you live it, make sure you love it.