Small Acts

Thursday's Thought 

Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even into your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. – Swami Sivananda

Sometimes at the gym, I look over my work out and try to decide how hard I should be pushing myself for a particular set. This tends to happen with frequency on my squat days. As much as I love building my booty, squats are hard and my hips get tight. Recently, I was looking over my planned session and someone asked why I was studying it so intently. I explained I wanted to decide how hard to push myself. My response was met with horror and the response that I should push hard every set, every rep, all the time. 

How novel and foreign of a concept for me! I’ve often lived out my days parceling my energy so that I have enough to do everything I want to do. But there’s wisdom in that statement for sure. If I push hard on every set, approaching every set like it’s both my first and my last, then I will find success in every single one. Sure, it might be harder to start, but eventually my body will adapt and I’ll find a new center, a new middle, and a new end. I am doing myself a disservice if I don’t push hard all the time, every single time. So that’s what I’ve been trying to do this week. It’s been difficult, and a bit challenging, but I know it’s the right thing to do. And what’s more, it makes me a stronger person for it in the end.