So you do something, and it hurts. You feel the pain. Maybe you even could hear the pain. The human response is to avoid that pain causing action in the future.
But, life goes on. If you were drinking orange juice, and got really sick, whether the juice caused it or not, you may never even want to smell OJ again. But, there may come a day when you are in a position where you may have juice in front of you and have to drink it. Maybe you are on ‘Survivor’ and you need to drink it to win a competition. That’s a big stretch, but the analogy is not lost here.
You can’t let your fears debilitate you. While there are some fears that are justified, most fears can be put into the irrational category. Our response to them is emotional, not calculated.
So there I was last night, looking down the barrel of a Kempo X routine that I knew might have some issues. I am on week three now and have been through this…so I know what the moves are. I know the motion, and I know the body parts and joints required to complete the motion. I know what is coming.
The night before, I had heard an exquisite joint wrenching sound from my right hip area, and felt the pain to go with it. If there was ever a reason to not do the routine, that was it. I also was still a little sore in that spot with a twinge here or there. The fear is that I really do something that either makes me stop working out or worse, requires some medical help to fix. That is not emotional fear. Based on what I was about to do, that fear was completely rational.
I decided that what I needed to do was to do the workout and really listen to my body. I should only push the workout when I knew the moves were safe and I could do them without causing damage. I had my moments. There were some left leg kicks that required the support of the hip that did cause some pain. I made some adjustments and it was okay. The interesting thing was that, if executed in the proper form…really disciplined proper form, the pain was less. These exercises were made with that in mind.
I turned out a pretty rigorous routine, 95% of the exercises required no adjustments.
My flexibility is increasing tremendously and I think that the real tearing that might be happening is due to the deep stretches. It might just be the breaking down of some gristle. We shall see.
The bottom line is you can’t let fear become an obstacle to your growth or achievements. Emotional irrational fears should never be allowed to do that. That said, because they are emotional and irrational, they are the most difficult to overcome. Rational fears should not be obstacles either. Remove them. Evaluate them for what they really are. Then drop them off the plane.
Fly straight, happy landings…and here’s to the start of week four tomorrow!
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