What Excuses do you Make?

When I was a cheerleader in high school I pulled and then tore the ACL in my right knee. Yes, I said as a cheerleader. Although my husband will tell you different, it is a sport, at least at my school it was. Our coach was a hard ass and she pushed us to be the best we could be. Basically, it goes like this….there was a boy I had a crush on at the basketball game that night and I thought,  just one more of my super fantastic jumps will impress him and he’ll be mine forever. Rolling your eyes? Yeah, it didn’t work. He probably didn’t even notice as I went limping off the court having twisted my knee while my foot was still planted.(that feels just as bad as it sounds) I sat on the bleachers and watched as my knee swelled up so much I couldn’t even see my knee cap anymore. All for a stupid boy. He now lives in Europe somewhere with goats. I like goat cheese.  That is the depth of our relationship these days.
So, I ended up in a knee immobilizer for about six weeks. In the middle of winter. And only a couple months before cheerleading competitions. I was stressed to say the least and I am here to tell you that going through a 12-hour practice on a Saturday in a knee immobilizer is not fun. I told you my coach was a hard ass!
That thing finally came off a few weeks before competitions and my coach looked at me and said jump, Cathy. Frig that crap! That’s what got me into that mess in the first place. Oh, I forgot to mention the jump or shall we say jump combo she wanted me to attempt was a ten-toe touches-in-a-row-friggin-psycho combo. Before that injury I considered myself to be a pretty good performer of jumps, but somehow the fear of hurting myself held me back from giving it my all.
We all do that, don’t we? We find something to keep us from challenging ourselves, to pushing ourselves to do better and be better.
Over the years, I have used my knee (now knees due to over compensating) as my excuse to not push my body more. I love to walk, but I really love to run. So, I would go to the track at my local high school and run the straight-a-ways and walk the corners. I went there to do this yesterday.  As I was running that first 100 meters, I felt good. When I got close to the point where I would normally walk I decided to keep running. I ran the entire lap! I pushed myself.  I talked to myself and I had really energizing music blaring in my ears. I then walked a lap and ran again….I continued this for a total of six laps. I felt great. I feel great. The mind is so powerful. If we tell ourselves we can’t, then we won’t, but if we tell ourselves we can and deserve to, then we will.
Push yourself today. For your health, for your fitness, or for anything that you have been making an excuse to hold back on.