The best and in the same time the hardest feeling is being a beginner. Being a beginner gives you a huge space to advance and to grow. In the same time, when you are a beginner, the path in front of you is so foggy. You have no idea what to expect. You have no idea if what you are gonna face is something that you have the strength to deal with.
I’ve trained and I still do train with a lot of people. Most of them are usually scared from the first steps in the path to a healthier, more athletic and more capable self. They rush to get discouraged when something is difficult, when they are tired or when some movement doesn’t come with ease.
Then, the monologue in their head becomes more and more intense and they start repeating that they are incapable, couch potatoes and so forth. I always tell people that it never gets easier. You just become more conscious. Progress suggests the presence of challenge. Life and the body become stronger through facing challenges and overcoming them. In order to become something more tomorrow, you should do something more today. Sometimes, this means making more effort or accepting a feeling that is so unfamiliar.
Getting to know your body is a long and interesting process. The moment when you cannot differ the pain of muscle soreness, from the pain of an injury. When you are not used to challenging your body physically or the first time you have a tough workout and you feel like your heart is gonna jump out of your chest. These are all feelings that scare you, because they are new.
Everything new scares us. That is how we are – we love the security of what is familiar and predictable and every time when there is something different and insecure, the mind tries to deny it.
A lot of people fool themselves, that it is just them who are challenged to do something and who get tired of doing something. In reality we are all feeling like this. Everyone of us has moments when we just want to stop working out and stop making those efforts, yet we keep on doing it. As I said, it doesn’t get easier. Because the more you are capable of doing, the harder things you are trying to master. On every stage, you are always a beginner for what is awaiting you. But it becomes more conscious, because you already have the experience and the data of everything you’ve practiced so far. You are familiar with the sensations on your body; with the boundaries of your momentary abilities.
Just when it seems impossible to keep on going, we should persist. More often than not, when I am training with a beginner and something challenges him, he usually stops. Then I take the time to explain him that during the set there is one rep that makes us feel as we can’t keep doing anymore. A moment when you feel like quitting. This is the moment, when you need to mobilize yourself and finish the rep. That is when something amazing takes place. As if everything in your body reprograms and even though a couple seconds ago you felt like you can’t do anymore, you are now finishing your set with ease. This is a moment when if you refuse to quit, your body releases hormones, which mobilize your strength and helps you use a bigger capacity of your abilities. The moment, when you literally reprogram the biochemistry of your body and you become a different person – closer to the athlete you’d like to become.
As it is with life. When we are challenged, there comes a moment when we feel like we can’t bear anymore. But if we refuse to quit and if we keep on going, we suddenly discover a surprising hidden strength and we realize that we can endure much more, before we reach our limits.
This happens often, when I am trying to master a challenging arm balance or some other handstand drill. The moment when I manage to perform the movement for the first time, and it feels like my mind and my body get scared. Sometimes I feel dizzy and my whole body trembles, the way it does when something scares you. It seems that a person is truly scared of the greatness inside of him.
This is the moment when I know that my body starts its reprogramming. The moment, when I have managed to do something that is like a hint about what I am capable of and if I keep on trying this movement, my body will start getting familiar with it. Every system in our body gets used to where is the body in space, how much oxygen the muscles need, what should be the rhythm of breath and so forth. The more I try it, the easier it gets. Because it takes time before a movement becomes a part of every single cell in your body. It takes time before you can perform something, without it looking awkward and without feeling like a beginner. It takes time before you start moving your body with ease, without thinking about every single detail, while forgetting about another one.
Because, no matter the stage of life, we are always beginners – for what is coming. But to be a beginner is not scary. Being a beginner is great, because you have the space to fulfill your potential.
Being challenged is the best feeling, because a person reveals his potential, just when he is challenged to search for them. And if we never try what we can do, we will never realize what is hidden inside of us.
Do not be scared to breath heavy, to have muscle soreness, to be challenged or to be willing to quit. These are just the emotions and the feelings of growth. Do not freeze in time. Move forward and grow.
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