“56 day streak…”
Shared by Breanne Smedley
Tomorrow marks the 56th day in a row of completing GRIT workouts within the StoryAthlete community.
56 days in a row of working out.
That doesn’t seem like something that should be out of the ordinary for me.
In fact, it’s not.
But, here’s the thing about these 56 GRIT workouts that I am completing along with 60 other people in the community.
You miss one, and you’re out.
Done. Gone from the community until the next challenge that re-ups at the start of the month.
That sounded a little ridiculous to me when I first signed on to the challenge in the beginning of October.
“What about if I can’t get it done?”
“What if I have a really busy day?”
“What if something comes up?”
“Doesn’t he know how busy I am?!”
Doesn’t matter. Find a way. Don’t let your team down.
There were days during the challenge that were tough to get the workout done.
Days of long travel and all-day volleyball tournaments.
Days when “things” kept coming up.
Days when I felt tired or sick.
Days when I just didn’t want to workout.
“Give yourself a break, you deserve it…”
On these days, before GRIT, I would either:
A. Not workout.
Or
B. Do something really quick and likely light (which is better than nothing, I’d tell myself)
On these days when it seemed impossible to get a workout in, I’m willing to bet on my before-GRIT mindset that I wouldn’t voluntarily choose to run a 5K while stopping every ½ mile to complete burpees, mountain climbers, and push-ups.
Or dead hang from a bar for an accumulated 4 minutes with burpee penalties with every drop.
No, I’d justify the slow flow deep stretch yoga class I taught 1st period as my “workout” for the day instead.
But here’s the thing about that “ridiculous” rule within the GRIT challenge.
It works.
The thought of letting down my team and getting booted from the group by not posting my workout was enough to make me completely re-engineer my environment.
I could not leave my workout up to fate.
Busy Tuesday with no free time and a late match?
Looks like I’m running the 5K on my lunch break. Put it on the calendar. No thinking-just do!
Schedule jam-packed until 10pm at night?
Looks like the GRIT workout gets done at 10pm at night-there’s no other option!
Before, I’d just hope that my willpower was strong enough that day to get a good workout in despite the schedule challenges.
The thing is, willpower to try to achieve anything doesn’t work.
And depending on willpower, especially when we put ourselves in situations that require some sort of superhuman strength, will defeat us every time.
As Ryan says, “The real secret to having willpower is not to depend on willpower in the first place.”
Willpower will eventually break us.
Want success?
Find accountability.
Engineer your environment to eliminate any need for willpower.
It’s worked for nearly 56 days so far.
And I don’t see an end in sight.
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