“Today’s workout is a killer,” Kyle said on his way out of Crossfit, as I was arriving. I laugh, but my gut clenches with anxiety. I haven’t been looking up the workout before coming so I don’t get intimidated and come up with wimpy excuses to not go. What am I in for?
Today’s workout is called “Fifty Fifty”. Fifty each of a long list of things that make my head swim. Here’s a sampling: kettlebells, knees to elbows, jump ropes (called down unders), pull-ups, walking lunges. I won’t lie – it was a killer, indeed. But I tried to not complain. I completed 50 before moving on to the next activity.
I work out with two to three other women at the 6:45 a.m. class. They are all done and I am still working on my jump ropes. All 150 of them. 150! Why, oh, why, didn’t I jump rope more when I was a kid? Then maybe this would be a breeze.
I count, 1-2-3-4-5. Rest. Count in tens. Past the halfway mark. Another 20. Five more. Omigosh, the rope stings my skin. It’s punishment for when I miss getting it under my feet. But. I. Get. It. Done.
That left me with the knees to elbows. Everyone is done. They are stretching, laying on the floor, visiting, writing in their exercise journals. I want to jog over there and join them. Instead, I head over to the pull-up bars and do 50 knees to elbows.
By the end, it wasn’t pretty, but I did it.
“Way to stick to it,” Mollie said. “Yes,” I said, panting. “Way.”
* * *
As a writer, I tend to go from project to project with the attention span of a gnat. Currently, I have at least three works-in-progress that I have been working on for over a decade. Almost all have been drafted, and now I just need to revise. I want to think that I am at least chipping away at a project each time I pick it up. My usual excuses:
- “I can’t just stick to one.”
- “I’m bored.”
- “Squirrel!”
Ultimately, it is hard to start and stop, then start again. In Crossfit today, every time I set down that weight, that kettlebell, I had to rev myself up again to continue.
The other day, I sat in my office chair for a long time, finishing a memoir client’s chapter. It felt like forever, but it was only two hours. Sometimes, what we think is a long time, is actually not.
We really have it in us to finish a task until it is completed. We have done it before and we can do it again.
* * *
Today’s writing takeaway:
- Stick to it. Even if it hurts. Even if you’re bored. Take a quick break, then get back to the task.
- Build up the length of time you write. Write for 10, then 20, then 30 minutes. Bump it up to an hour.
- Set a goal and focus on it with laser-like precision. Don’t putter over to the laundry pile, or the snack cupboard, or name-that-distraction. Get ‘er done.
- Put on motivational music. Something to get the heart pumping and your brain believing.
Your turn: What helps you “stick to it”?
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Quiet time is what helps me stick to it.
Usually in the fall and winter, I can never carve out enough quiet time to really get into my current writing project (sadly, discovered a month went by between the last two times that I’d opened my project). Doesn’t matter if work & life are creating nasty interruptions, if I don’t have the required down time, nothing gets written.
I like writing in the spring and summer because the family is spending less time on the weekends, which in turn allows me enough quiet time to write.
Hi Georgie! I hear you. Quiet time is precious. My favorite thing to do nowadays is to sit in the family room when the house is empty and write, write, write. 🙂