Longtime readers know that I am somewhat obsessed with exercise. I’m not a gym rat or anything like that, but I’ve been exercising consistently since I was in the fourth grade. Yep, fourth grade! I remember because that was the year I got an exercise trampoline for Christmas, and it’s been my go-to choice for cardio ever since.
Nowadays, though, I belong to a real gym.
#adulting
And I especially love the spin classes. A couple of weeks ago, I finally splurged and bought my first clip-in bike shoes. I feel totally legit. (They have velcro and everything!) But even though I’ve been doing this class for a over a year, it’s still hard. Our Les Mills RPM always follows the same formula: a warm-up followed by a pace track, then hills, mixed terrain, intervals, speed, and a big mountain peak before the final ride home and a cooldown.
At the end of every track, I’m sweaty, breathless, and exhausted.
I used to think, “Ok, today I’m going to crush it! Today the ride will be an easy one.”
But it’s always hard.
Always.
At first, I felt discouraged because after a year of consistent cycling, I thought I should be able to do it without getting to the end looking like I’d just finished a leg of the Tour de France instead of forty-five minutes in a cycle studio.
“If you can still talk after that last track, then you’re not doing it right,” my coach said one day.
Whew! I was normal after all.
Slowly, I started pushing myself a little harder. I turned the tension dial a little farther to the right and climbed a little higher. I pedaled as fast as I could.
More recently, I’ve noticed that I’m riding a little faster. I’m adding more tension to the climbs. I’m keeping pace with the instructor more often than not. The trajectory of my body’s physical capabilities has shifted, and it feels good. I’m getting stronger.
Sometimes, it’s hard to remember the way I was just a few months ago. I noticed that I can go longer on the treadmill. That I’m not as winded on the elliptical. That I’m sleeping better, and I have more energy.
Indeed, in a year, I could be in the best shape of my life. With more focused strength and speed training, it would certainly be possible.
And so I keep going, knowing that every ride is simply preparation for the NEXT ride.
There’s always this one point in the class when the coach says, “This is your ride. You do what you can do. When you feel like you’ve had enough, feel free to get off the bike and leave. The doors aren’t locked.”
And then she adds, “But I’d love for you to stay.”
There’s invitation and welcome in those words. As if she’s speaking only to me.
And so I keep going.
Because I’ve noticed that every time I show up, the training doesn’t get easier, but I get stronger.
In life, we should notice and celebrate these moments when the terrain shifts. We don’t get there by accident. Everything that’s happening in our lives right now is training ground for what’s next. These changes don’t occur like the shifting photos in a slide show—abrupt—disconnected—an image of you now and tomorrow a million dollars richer or the product of a happy marriage where once a sad one lived or soft and out of shape one day and then suddenly full of muscles and energy the next. No. There’s an ebb and flow to life, a rhythm that’s born from constant training to be the person you were meant to be.
The baby hills we travel now prepare us for the mountains ahead.
This week’s WINsday on Wednesday comes from my friend, Sandra Stanley. She says that life is a series of baby steps, tiny decisions or actions we encounter on our way to something bigger. The things Sandra is doing now (I.e. writing books, speaking at conferences, and advocating for kids in foster care) happen on such a big stage. If you google Sandra Stanley, you’ll find page after page of interviews, links to her writing, and information about her passion project: foster care. Her platform is bigger than most, and her influence is far reaching and couldn’t have been accomplished when she was in the middle of rearing her own small children. Admittedly, she said “no” to a lot of things.
Home was her gym, and the homemaking and child rearing and Bible study became training ground for the season she is in right now. She showed up everyday and did the work.
When you meet someone who’s doing something important, you have to know that they didn’t just wake up one day and start that company or run that marathon or climb that mountain or adopt those kids. There’s always a back story, a series of events that probably seemed insignificant at the time but looking back were actually training ground for the significant work that’s being done now.
The good news is that no experience is ever wasted. God can use it all.
Sandra’s advice: Ask God to help you prepare for the season that awaits. Pray, “God, give me guidance and direction. Please cast vision for what’s next, and show me what to do now, so I’ll be clear about where to go next.” (You can watch our full interview here)
So I ride a bike a couple times a week at the gym. And every once in awhile, I still drag out the trampoline and jump my little heart out. Because no matter what’s next for me—big or small—it’s the daily discipline of showing up that makes the difference.
Interestingly, when I talked to Sandra, she didn’t talk about this new season as being an “easy” one, only that it was one in which she felt she had been adequately prepared. And I think about my own life. Easy has never been my goal.
STRONG is my goal.
And isn’t that what you want, too?
Follow your mission, not the madness.