It’s not about the abs!

So as I debate should I or shouldn’t I, and I crop that perfect but not perfect picture, an ad pops up…Sale Now – 14 day detox! HA!  My inner bitch has a chuckle. That’s SO not what this is about!

I’ve been working out pretty consistently for a little over a year now, even though the first few months was with a broken foot, I still claim the time. 

I’ve gone through highs and lows, loving it and hating it and still I wonder…where are my abs?  For heaven’s sake, I know they are in there somewhere!  (but pictures don’t lie, even if they are laying flat and unable to breathe)

But that’s not really what this is about. You see, I realized that my abs are hiding because they aren’t what I’m focusing on…kind of like a few other things on my life. 

For me, ab work outs are like a slow death. I would honestly sooner slit my wrists. I’d love to see them, but to work that area makes me want to run and hide. Which usually, I do. So I was wondering…why?

Well, they aren’t fun. In fact, they are hard. I would rather whine…and wine…than do the things I need to do. Like working at some other things consistently. It is easier (in the short run) to whine that I can’t, than to actually try. 

And here is the parallel. Life. And what I want.  And what is “hard”.

How often do we know what we want but don’t follow or finish the path to get there because it is uncomfortable while we are on it. It is easier to whine. It is easier to say that it wasn’t meant to be than to suffer the discomfort of trying. 

Or worse yet, trying and not getting there. After all, what would failure say about us?

We forget that even if we don’t reach our goal tomorrow or next year, we are a lot closer than if we’d done nothing. 

This isn’t about the search for abs but about my search for strengthening my “try”. 

My try muscle is the thing that lets me give it a go. It’s what I need to build, by working it out. It’s about knowing that as it grows, nothing is lost. And it’s about being in charge, or trying to be, of the direction I’m going instead of leaving it to hope or chance or the universe. Sorry friends, I believe that magic needs our active participation. 

So, may be the muscles aren’t fully developed or yet picture perfect, but when I try, I’m a whole lot farther than when I don’t.

May be, just may be, what I want to go after is actually worth giving it some attention, and some work, risking not getting there, at least not yet….but giving it a try!