What Aren’t You Appreciating Right Now?

Debbie Hatch  |  Family & F.I.T.

I’m in a bit of a reflective mood today brought on by a self-inflicted injury.  Let me give you the back story first and explain the significance of those words for me.

I’ve been saying these words:  “it was self-inflicted”, since my children were little.  While they were never really fans of hearing it, personal responsibility was something I wanted to instill at a very young age.   Nobody – myself include – wants to hear, “it was self-inflicted”.  Those words are similar to giving advice.  Very easy to say to other people.  Much more difficult to accept for yourself.

Calling something “self-inflicted” doesn’t negate the injury but it…um…mitigates a bit of its drama, let’s say.

• You didn’t “get hurt”.  You hurt yourself.
• You’re not “sick”.  You made yourself ill by drinking/eating too much.
• This didn’t “happen to you”.  You caused this to happen, by…

Speaking of drama. None of these were “disasters”. But you get the idea.

Seem cruel and uncaring?  Far from it.  They received any care (and love) they needed.  But they didn’t get to distance themselves from the responsibility for what happened.  My point was merely, if you were directly responsible for the injury, the illness, or whatever, you have the ability to avoid this in the future.  …and we’d talk about how.

Since yesterday I have been accepting personal responsibility for a self-inflicted injury.  It was dumb, and I don’t like hearing those words.  But…

Wednesday evening I was feeling completely unmotivated and lazy.  I didn’t want to go to the gym.  There was no real reason for me not to go, and deep down I did want to get a workout in, I just didn’t feel like it at that particular moment.  I know you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Normally once I get started, everything falls into place, though.  Many times I find my motivation was just waiting for me to show up at the gym.

So I got dressed and went to the gym.

My first two exercises were deadlifts (for time) and box jumps.  I completed my first four sets of the two exercises, superset one after the other.  I was feeling strong, pulling good weight, and started to get into my groove.  Yes!

Then, I got lazy.  On rep #3 of the fifth set, I rushed.  I didn’t think about my form.  I picked up the weight without first stabilizing my core, stood up fast, and wanted to immediately drop the weight to the floor.  It hurt!!

It was one of those times like when you lock your keys in your car.  You know immediately – sometimes before the door has even closed all the way – but it’s too late to do anything about it.

Yup.

It was just like that.

I didn’t get hurt because “deadlifts are dangerous”, because “doing exercise for time is crazy”, or anything else.  I got hurt because I wasn’t paying attention and I know better!  It was self-inflicted.  There was no serious damage but the muscles in my lower back began to tighten and spasm, immediately.  Getting into bed was difficult and putting pants on when you can’t pick up one leg while stabilizing on the other, really sucks.  I spent most of yesterday trying to get comfortable in my chair.  Today is better and by tomorrow I’ll be almost back to normal.

Know what I’ve been thinking about for these last two days?  How much I want to exercise. Two days ago, I didn’t want to exercise; and for the past two days, all I’ve thought about is wanting to be able to exercise.  It’s just like the carrot cake and granny smith apples I wrote about on Tuesday.

We have a real tendency of not appreciating what we have when we have it.

• I had a functional movement screen done two weeks ago.  The trainer said, “you move very well”.  I never thought anything about it.  Yesterday I missed not being able to move well!
• When our kids were little, my husband and I occasionally grumbled about all of the sports, clubs, and extra curricular activities.  We never had time to do anything but play taxi.  Man, I miss those days!!
• When my son was in basic training, I just wanted him to be done.  I wanted that trial to be over.  Shortly after he finished, he headed to Iraq for a year.  Wow.  I wanted him back at basic training!

I’m aware of these tendencies and I really do try to mitigate them to the greatest extent possible.  When we lived in Montana, we snowmobiled every weekend we could – because we knew it wouldn’t always be an option.  It was a personal rule!  When we lived in Florida, the last time, I told my husband we “had to” go to the beach every weekend I was not traveling.  That was a new rule because the first time we lived in Florida I worked far too much and visited the beach far too little.  This time, I didn’t care what the weather was like.  We went in the rain, the sun, and wrapped in sweatshirts when it was windy and cold but we went.  Every weekend.

Here’s the tough question for you.

What are you doing today that you’re not appreciating enough?  Your children won’t always be home.  The people you love won’t always be there.  How many things do you find a nuisance today but you would miss tomorrow if/when they’re gone?  What if you couldn’t work out ever again?  What if you lost your job?

Think for one moment about how truly fortunate you are.  THESE are the good old days.

xo