“100 Burpees a day…”

-


 

Shared by Breanne Smedley

“100 Burpees a day…”

Last week, I accidentally agreed to doing 100 burpees a day for 28 days.

Nearly 2,800 burpees by Oct. 31st.

I actually joined a different challenge with my fellow StoryAthletes to develop grit and mental toughness through daily workouts over the course of 28 days.

I thought the challenge included 100 burpees a day, something the group did together last month.

Burpees absolutely suck.

They’re a full-body movement in which you bring your body down to the floor, then convince yourself not to stay there as you push yourself back up so that your feet meet your hands, then top it all off with a jump off the ground.

Scared, I decided to get my classes on board with me. Then my volleyball team.

By the end of the week, I had recruited a small army of people pumped and ready to start doing 100 burpees a day.

Turns out, I didn’t read the challenge rules closely enough.

Workout #1 was posted. It involved running stairs, push-ups, hollow rocks…

But no burpees…

I realized my error, followed immediately by the realization that I can’t back out now.

So, 100 burpees a day it is.

Why?

Because part of being a Mindfluent Leader is putting ourselves in situations to grow.
To become stronger.
To evolve instead of stay put.
To become resilient.
To practice optimism in the face of difficulty.

It has way less to do with the physical benefits (although secretly I’ll be a little ticked if I don’t see some sort of fitness improvement after nearly 3.000 burpees…)

It has everything to do with my mental conditioning.

We can’t grow if we don’t struggle.

We can’t struggle if we are never in situations to do so.

I’m training my mind to see difficult things as an opportunity instead of something to bring me down.

As I lower myself to the ground for burpee number 64 and I ignore that little voice that tells me just to stop, I get stronger.

I condition myself to embrace the suck.

I remind myself that I can do hard things.

And I let that resiliency, optimism, and mindset shift to enter all other areas of my life.

When Charlee is going nuts and I can’t figure out why she’s crying, making me want to pull out my hair.

“I can do hard things.”

When I’m faced with a difficult conversation that I know I need to have, but don’t want to.

“I can do hard things.”

When the unimaginable happens in my life. Loss of loved ones. Broken relationships.

“I can do hard things. Keep going.”

The situation may be hard. The outcome may be uncertain, but I can choose to remain resilient and optimistic.

Every day, I’m proving it to myself.

One burpee at a time.

 

#FiercelyOptimistic

#DaringlyResilient

 Check out what we're up to now!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Learning to Crawl..."

-
Image
  Shared by Kristina Smedley Kaden has been blowing our minds with his persistence in learning how to crawl. I don’t know why this is surprising. For some reason, I expected that babies just crawled… not that I would see his very visible effort into actually learning and practicing how to crawl. #newmom ;-)   About two weeks ago, he started getting further up on his hands. And started a little rocking back and forth. Then slowly we saw a knee pop-under him.   Then a little lat pull-down type action to use his arms to lunge himself forward. Then all in about 24 hours he was army crawling, then getting his legs into it, and then suddenly he was coordinated and crawling around. I loved watching him figure this out.   And watching him struggle a little with something until he got the next piece down, and the next, and the next. And honestly, Kaden has been a great reminder to me that I too have to learn to crawl first, before I can walk and eventually run. And even ‘crawling' isn't
Read more

“Streaks…”

-
Image
  Shared by Breanne Smedley Spend time around high schoolers and you’re sure to hear the word, “streaks.” More specifically, phrases along the lines of: “I gotta keep my streaks.” Or, “We broke our 100-day streak yesterday!” If you don’t hang out with high school-aged people every day, let me fill you in. “Streaks” refer to the ongoing exchange of photos/messages between two people on SnapChat. If a friend and I snap chat with each other for two days in a row, we have a two-day streak. Three days in a row, a three-day streak. Five days, a five-day streak. And so on until one person breaks it ad the streak has to start back over. Kids get a little neurotic about their streaks. I overheard a student talking about how she gave her SnapChat login information to a friend so that she could “keep her streaks” while on vacation without cell service. That’s commitment and problem-solving at it’s finest right there. While sometimes I don’t get it (because apparently I’m old and I haven’t even re
Read more

“Exhausted vs Inspiring…”

-
Image
  Shared by Kristina Smedley “Exhausted vs Inspiring…” I have noticed two pretty distinct responses from others when I share what’s going on in my life right now. “Wow, that is inspiring!” -OR- “Ugg, you must be exhausted!” It seems that they’ve either had the experience of following their dreams and understand the commitment, hard work, and pure energy gained on the journey… whatever their personal journey might be. Or they’ve sat back in life, thinking it would just be too hard or not possible. We all run into this choice at one point or another. I’ve definitely had those moments where I didn’t go for it. And I remember feeling sluggish, uninspired… exhausted. This is the exact opposite of what life is like when stepping into, what we call, our ImpactZone™. Here, there’s unlimited energy as our passions are discovered and acted on. Where are our skills and abilities are utilized and further developed. Where we have a deep and meaningful purpose. Here, life is exciting, challenging, a
Read more