Words of Wisdom From the Blogosphere

This week has seen a lot of smart people saying a lot of sensible things. This is good, because I’m in a bit of a rut lately, and I’m ever so thankful to all of the cool people out there who share their wisdom with the rest of. Here are a few posts that struck a particular cord for me.

Positive Upward Spirals

Tim and I have been talking about “positive upward spirals” lately. We’ve got some big goals on the horizon, some having to do with fitness, others with business and travel. But putting all the little habits in place to make all these different goals a reality takes a lot of planning and mental reassurance. Hence, we’re trying to do things everyday to create “positive upwards spirals” that propel us from one activity to the other.

Uncannily, Adam wrote about this yesterday on his Better is Better blog. He explains how creating upward spirals, not only in fitness, but in life, work, et cetera, can lead to improvement in all aspects of life. He also reminds us that it’s okay to put certain things on hold in order to purse other goals. It all comes together in the end for the greater good.

When you come back to something, as long as you have been working hard on shoring up your weak spots, you will be better than you were before… Don’t be scared to put something aside in order to pursue new and appropriate goals. What is appropriate? It depends on where you are in your training, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what compensations have developed from your training and your life and finally what your goals are.

I think he really nailed it in the comments…

[Positive upward spirals are] so useful in dissipating the fear of letting one thing go in order to pursue something else that you intuitively feel needs attention. Everything seems connected and it we are continually improving one area it seems to wave out into everything else.

475 Continuous Clubbell® Mills: An Upward Performance Spiral

Mastering the “Transition Ick Zone”

A couple Novembers ago I ran the Nike 10k in London. It was a great race and I enjoyed the training even more. But when the race was over, I was suddenly stranded. I didn’t have a goal. Or a plan. Eventually, Christmas came, but my training didn’t. A few pumpkin pies and a couple gallons of egg nog later and I was back where I started, bloated and bummed.

In a nutshell, I got trapped in what Amy Hunold-VanGundy calls the “transition ick zone”.

When I have a routine and a plan, I can do a lot. But when my planned routine gets throw into a blender, my running suffers instantly. I find it hard to find time or make time. Motivation for running is redirected to motivation to find a rythym for life. Excuses of why I shouldn’t run become overly abundant. And its not because I don’t like to run or want to run, but it feels like there is so much noise going on in my life that I can’t find the mental focus to plan or complete a run.

This time, Amy’s taking the “transition ick zone” by the balls and making her its master. She’s just coming off of her main goal of the year: running a half marathon. Now that her training is over, she’s recovering from the race and transitioning back into running for fun. I wish I had her plan a few Novembers ago. The best part about it is here total ban on guilt…

Guilt free “running break” for 3 weeks. No silent mental inquisitions, no guilt, no rehash of shoulda, woulda, coulda. Run if I can but be quiet about it if I can’t.

She’s also looking to the future by setting a finite end date to her running hiatus and focussing on her next goal:

Each year I let my 1/2 marathon training fizzle out after my October race and then need to start up again in the spring. This year, I would really like to avoid the rebuilding. Anyone interested in joining me in a challenge like this?

Running Through Change

What’s Your Personal Tagline?

A while ago, in my post about Purple Cows, I said that “a slogan can serve as a personal mantra, a credo, a handy catchphrase to remind us what all this health stuff means to us.”

MizFit feels the same way and has followed with a great series of posts about defining your personal tagline. Her emphasis is “on introspection. on pausing & pondering for the sake of living authentically.”

I’ve always loved MizFit’s tagline, “because fitness isn’t about fitting in” and the 102 (!!!) comments on her post have really got me thinking about what MY tagline should be. I’m still working on it, but here are some people who’ve really nailed theirs down:

Kelly:

Get Grounded, Stay Grounded…

…which is to try and encourage people to get a freakin’ grip…we all need to calm down, take a second, and think about WHY we are living a healthy lifestyle. I will never be and over exerciser, I will never be a wake up at dawn and run 15 miles person, and I will never let workouts, or food, make me feel guilty. Its all about keeping it in perspective.

Andrew R:

Know When To Make A Change And When To Stay Consistent!

This has been one of the most basic concepts in both the successes and failures of my life. Seeing a situation for what it’s worth and deciding the proper course of action. If you get too caught up in the past, you could make the wrong choice for the future. And on the other side, if you focus too much on the future, you could lose sight of the present. It’s a balancing act.

Cyndi:

‘Live Life In Big Gulps’

I’ve sort of adopted that as my personal tag line. My fitness journey has become about transforming myself inside and out, so that I CAN Live Life In Big Gulps. It’s all about trying new things, taking risks, going outside my comfort zone….then I am truly taking life in ‘big gulps’, because we don’t really know how much of it we get to enjoy do we?

What question do I want my tagline to answer?

Power Animals

According to shaman Nicholas Noble Wolf, a power animal is “an aspect of self that is represented by an animal” and “can be empowered and encouraged such that it assists you in your life.”

Liz found her power animal this week: it’s a turtle, which she reminds me is “a common metaphor for sensible weight loss.”

…it is perfectly okay for me to lose weight slowly. Like, even at a glacially slow pace. If I eat more (relatively healthful) food, it may actually be a great thing for my metabolism and the weight-loss will zip right along. Or it may very well be that I lose less than a pound a week. It could take me two years to lose the weight. Is this okay?

Deep breath. Yes. Yes, it is. Turtles are stubborn, and slow, and tough, and so am I.

In reading the Internet about power animals I came across Power Animals Unleashed, a site that claims it can show you what your power animal is by clicking on an image of a forrest (uh, right). It says mine is the Lion, which “will teach me to have the courage to be myself, always and in all ways and to know the deep truth, that I am exactly as I should be.” Frankly, I prefer the snail.

I Have a Power Animal

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