Standing still is a CHOICE and a DECISION made.
One thing stood out very clearly to me as Lawrence and I were creating Sweat in 2012. He quickly and easily made decisions without second guessing himself. I, on the other hand, dragged my heels and wanted more time to think, more time to question, more time to weigh the pros and cons, more time to go backwards then forwards again, more time to evaluate if I could see into the future and dodge a mistake.
I preferred inaction over action because I ultimately FEARED FAILURE. I allowed fear to completely paralyze me. What’s worse is I allowed myself to believe that in not taking action I was simply postponing a decision. Fast forward to 2015 and my mindset understands: “Inaction is STILL a conscious decision.”
If I could turn back the clocks and go back to elementary school I would have pushed to have gotten involved in some type of sport early on. I have no doubt that a big lesson that Lawrence learned while playing basketball is that DECISIONS must be made, sometimes you pick the right one, sometimes you pick the wrong one, but time never stands still. Neither mistakes nor triumphs are permanent so get over yourself. If you stand still during a play, you have, by default, decided not to pass, shoot, or dribble. Remaining stagnant, especially for too long, has real consequences just like everything else.
Whereas Lawrence learned these lessons on the court through play, I’ve had to learn them as an adult making my passion into a reality.
For those “standing still” waiting for the perfect moment to start training, start eating healthy, start reflecting on their food habits, start healing from food allergies/sensitivities, I am without a doubt, speaking directly to YOU. Don’t let fear of failure PARALYZE you from trying something new or doing something again. You are not required to get things right the first time nor the 50th time. The clock and it’s consequences never halt just because you have. Take time out to reflect, maybe change courses, but always make a MOVE.
At Sweat, we oftentimes program circuits where failure is the only rep count that matters. And while this physically presents our bodies with an overload that will cause change, this concept also trains our minds to welcome and be excited to fail. FAILURE becomes the marker for SUCCESS! You reached a boundary and couldn’t overcome it. It was hard and very uncomfortable but instead of steering clear of failure, we actually asked for it and hunted it down because we knew that only failure has the power to unlock certain plateaus.
On this Sunday morning, sit down and reflect on how you could be holding yourself back simply by standing still. Failure does not mark the end of the journey, it actually unveils the starting line!
