Here I am talking about being kind to oneself.
Here I am talking about leaving the madness and competitiveness of my work-life behind.
Here I am babbling away about taking life in stride.
My “failures” have raised their ugly head, but the final analysis has provided a good hardy laugh.
Here’s the story:
One of the perks of my Medicare Advantage plan is the ability to take 4 spin classes per month at the local CycleBar studio. I’ve been attending weekly since March. I admit I don’t love spinning, but once a week is okay and I get a pretty darn good cardio workout in 45 minutes.
Where my personal “failure” comes into play is that after class they send an email showing my scores of where I placed in the class for power, RPM, etc. As I looked around the studio, I mostly noticed young men and women who looked to be in pretty good shape and one older fellow (who, due to an injury, can only pedal with one leg).
Yes, the story is getting juicier.
After class, with sweat pouring, and my lungs heaving, I retrieved my phone and looked for the email. There it was, I was 18 out of 20; meaning other than the one-legged guy, there was only one other person with a worse score than I.
Frankly, I was immediately distraught. I mean, I pedaled my ASS off (oops, no, it’s still there). How could my score be so terrible?
I immediately went into justification mode: I was probably the second oldest person in the room and far from super fit. Of course, those young, fit women and men were going to score higher…
My mind continued to wade through the excuses. As I walked (or limped) to my car, I started laughing… why am I so stupidly competitive? Why should I care? I got out of the spin class EXACTLY what I wanted…a good cardio workout!
I guess I need to continue to work on toning down that inner voice that rages to be first! But you know what, the deep, full and very vocal laugh was worth it!
