I did yoga on the roof with my roommates yesterday. Just a 25 minute session, nothing crazy. No “fat burning” yoga. No “sweat your butt off in a 100 degree room” yoga. Just an easy flow.
How I feel when I actually do yoga every single day
Well, I’m feelin’ it today. My armpits are sore!
I used to do yoga EVERY SINGLE DAY. Until I just stopped one day, and lost the good habit I’d created.
Habits can be hard to build and easy to break. But whatever you want to be or do in life requires certain habits.
To be good at singing, you have to actually practice singing.
To learn the ukulele, you have to practice playing the damn ukulele.
And to be a great parent, you have to practice the skills of being a good parent…patience, communication skills, leading by example, and setting boundaries for your children with clear consequences that are enforced.
And studies show that in order to become REALLY great at something, you need deliberate practice, which is practicing something with the specific goal of improving performance.
It’s neither mindless repetition nor haphazard dalliance. It’s not doing something by rote every day over and over, and it’s also not showing up only when the mood moves you…it’s setting goals to improve and working intentionally to do so.
Being really good (or GREAT) at anything is not easy.
Every choice you make is either taking you closer to the person you want to be, or further away from it.
Taking an occasional step in the other direction isn’t a problem…but the solid majority of your steps need to be in the direction you want to be going.
“Yes, which way??” (Name that movie!)
I just saw a post today that said something like:
Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.
Being out of shape and unhealthy is hard. Getting fit is hard. Choose your hard.
Being broke is hard. Becoming wealthy is hard. Choose your hard.
Maintaining motivation is hard. Becoming successful is hard. Choose your hard.
Ice cream is always an easy decision for me…but that doesn’t make it the right decision every time
What’s difficult for us to understand is that it’s not hard at all to GET TO the hard place.
It’s easy to ignore your significant other’s needs in favor of your own.
It’s easy to choose frequent pizza delivery over cooking healthy meals for yourself.
It’s easy to buy yourself clothes and other fun things for an instant mood boost rather than putting your money into a savings account in case there’s a future emergency.
It’s easy to binge three seasons of a TV show rather than working on getting your new business off the ground.
In the short term, those things all feel easier.
Remember how I said that to get great at something requires deliberate practice?
Deliberate practice requires attention.
Presence.
Cooking a meal, attending to your partner’s needs, being a good parent, getting in shape, building a business…all require presence, attention, effort. That’s why it can feel easier to go the other way.
Not quite the type of “present” I meant…
None of those “easy” things require you to be fully present in the world.
They don’t require much effort, give immediate gratification, and in small amounts all of them are benign. But over time, consistently taking the “easy” route, will put you in a hard place, without fail.
Every second. Every day. You get to choose which hard path you want to take, and by choosing that path, you choose who you will be.
It’s your choice.
Me? I’m going to go practice my damn ukulele and do some yoga.