One Nanostep at a Time
Since I got started with fitness back in 2012 and 2013, I’ve noticed something about my own internal thought process: everything now comes to me in the form of a ‘training’ metaphor.
What I mean is: I grew up being pretty good at book learning and school, and not so awesome at other things, like anything sports or gym related. And because I was such a quick study at school and such a slow learner at physical activities (at least slow in my own mind; maybe I just didn’t have patient coaches?), I somehow never really got the hint that steadily applying oneself even if you’re not immediately good at something, is an entirely valid thing that most of us have to do. By my teens I was playing an individual sport with good coaching and regular drills, but the proverbial penny still didn’t really drop. I didn’t know how not to give up when things were moderately slow or difficult; I tended to assume I was just bad at something and quit. The pattern wasn’t as obvious as it might have been because I was enough of a rock star in the parts of life that came ‘naturally.’
I got a lot of poor grades in college on things that required harder dedication, and great grades on all the ‘fun’ stuff. And I still unconsciously assumed that things were either/or.
In my early 40s I taught myself music, starting with electric bass guitar. In a way, it took me that long to be willing to be bad at something but keep at it anyway. I had been so well rewarded for ‘just getting it’ on intellectual pursuits, and so convinced that I had to have coaching and help for anything else, that learning on-my-own wasn’t something I realized I could just … do.
That experience with music paid off when I started working out seriously, both as a road cyclist and in gyms lifting weights and putting them back down. And that was when I finally got it. Through social media, I met a lot of other people who weren’t necessarily ‘gifted’ at physical pursuits, but just did them. I got the clue that what mattered was becoming better at things, not so much how I measured up relative to others. And that consistency was the royal road to long-term successes. Quite suddenly I became all about taking that next step. Even if it was a nanostep. I could finally look back at my life and see how achievements that had seemed trivial at the time had paid off long-term. I got super eager to apply that lesson everywhere.
That training metaphor, the idea of simply putting in the work and sticking with it, is sure helping today as I set this site up for the Grampa Fitness community. Which right now is just me. ;-) There are a lot of threads to pull and some of them pull other threads and it gets a little confusing.
But hey. A five mile bike ride used to be tough. Then it was ten miles that was tough and five was sort of “well I know how to pace myself.” I grew by steady, if small, improvements. And here I am years later, one of those annoying people who talks about a 25-mile ride as being an ‘easy’ day.
As I push through all the steps, microsteps, and nanosteps to set this site up for you, the client, I’m confident it will all work out. Even if some of these microsteps are, you know, like totally overwhelming right now, OMG (snaps my gum and twists my hair around my finger).
© 2021 Grampa Fitness
Disclaimer: Ideas expressed in this blog post should not be construed as official advice on how to safely perform fitness activities. Always consult with your doctor and other medical professionals as necessary, before engaging in exercise.