Something is Better Than Nothing: The Key to Starting
Day 2 and 119 Days to go of the 120 Days of Radical Action
Who knew that first thing this morning my commitment to doing something radical would be challenged. At 630 AM, I was lying in bed perusing Instragram, when Chris asked me if I wanted to join him on his morning run. I quickly responded…
“No, I’m still sore from my workout on Saturday. I can barely even move.”
No sooner had I said it, I remembered my challenge and changed my mind. It was just that simple. Despite the fact that every muscle in by butt and legs were extremely tight and I had to climb out of bed using robotic movements, I told myself I would at least try.
When we got to the field my legs were so stiff that I could barely make it down the bleacher steps to the track. I asked Chris if he had any advice on what I should do. He suggested I walk. He was planning on running for an hour and he said he was sure I could, at the very least, walk for an hour. So after stretching as best I could, I started my fitness tracker and began my walk.
As I walked, my legs began to loosen up and regain some of their flexibility. After about two laps, I just started jogging. I didn’t have to force myself either. It was like my body just did it on its own. Then, before I knew it, I was running. With each lap I’d tell myself to just keep going until I couldn’t go anymore. I knew that Chris was going to be running for an hour so I would try to run as long as I could.
I ended up making it 4.05 miles in 44 minutes. I didn’t run for the full hour but I was proud that I ran for as long as I did. I started with a pace of 13’22” the first mile and by the last mile I was running 9’46.” I truly amazed myself. I haven’t run 4 miles in over a year. Before this challenge, I would have let my fear of pain and having a disappointing running pace stop me from even trying. Today’s radical action paid off. In this case, doing something was much better than doing nothing. Which brings me to the lesson I was reminded of during my workout.
Lesson of the Day
This morning when I woke up my body didn’t seem like it could handle a 4.0 mile run, but armed with my commitment to this challenge and encouragement from my hubby I got started with a walk.
It is so important to just take the first step, even if it is a raggedy, awkwardly painful looking step. Often times just getting started by doing something is much better than doing nothing.
When I returned home, floating on cloud 9 from my runners high, I took another first step. I created two Google forms to make it easy for my friends and family to join me on this 120 day challenge.
A couple of weeks ago, my mom had asked me to create a online form tool for one of my Thrival guides. I hadn’t got it done because I wanted my husband to create a fancy, customized, cloud-based widget. Thanks to this challenge I let go of trying to be perfect because sometimes…
Done is better than perfect.
The Google form will work just fine for now. I can always try to improve it or upgrade it to a new solution later.
So that’s the recap of my Radical Actions and Lessons Learned today in my 120 day challenge. For those of you joining me on the challenge, tell me how your day went in this nifty, free, and easy to create Google Form. Haven’t joined the challenge yet? Join by completing this other Google Form. :0)