Thursday, June 6, 2013

Sports ego

I just read something that really caught my attention. It was this woman writing about a fact (that I among probably a lot of people do)... You go to a yoga class and you hear the instructor telling you the different stages of a position -from the easiest one, to the hardest. Then you see your friend go straight into the hardest position and of course you copy her, not wanting her to be better. I know that happens to me all the time... I see someone lifting more weights at body pump and I immediately put on more weights for me as well. A small part of you wants to impress the instructor and get compliments.
The problem is that you should never compete with someone else (if it's not an actual competition). You might get hurt and in the worst type of scenario have to stop working out all in all. Besides you should really try to be happy about the improvements you're making individually. You might not be able to do the hardest position in yoga the first time, but after some practice you'll get to the same level where your friend is.

I just thought I'd share this with y'all because I immediately recognized myself. I'm feeling really anxious about the whole half-marathon thing because I don't want to get a bad time. At first I was doing it to beat myself, to just complete the race. I've always hated running (with a passion) and it's a big deal for me to run a half-marathon. Somehow I've now forgotten what I was aiming for, which is crossing the finish line, and started to think about times and listening to friends telling you what is bad or good. It's not like I'm going to run as slow as I can, but if I start freaking myself out about the time, I probably will run too hard, too soon, and not be able to finish.
So people should just remember to compete with themselves, you cannot compete with someone who has been doing it for a longer time and besides you just deciding to do it is already an accomplishment!


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